bullS**T

Charles Murray believes an individual's educational attainment is precluded by one's inherent intellectual ability, which he terms g and believes is highly measurable and simply quantifiable. He also believes that all proofs in the American Journal of Mathematics are beyond his own ability, g, to grasp. I applaud him for the latter only for the atypical show of humility - aside from this rare stab at identification with 'the rest of us' I think his article demonstrates a quality g which is highly correlated with, and perhaps even defined by b, given in the header of this article.

I absolutely don't buy it, I don't think you should buy it, and I really hope she doesn't buy it. However, given his authorship of The Bell Curve, if popularly accepted the ideas he propounds are no doubt good for his value of n, n denoting net worth.

north korea

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/them/schell.html

HOPE 6

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/07/fbi_arrest_private_eye_speaker.html

I don't know what to make of this

Yesterday I was on the east side of Central Park when I walked past two of the sort of uptown middle-aged-plus ladies (maybe plus plus, but for appearance' sake no more than plus) whose personal space I and many I know have found ourselves accidentally invading on occasion - notably recently as I left the Met with my sister and stopped to take a picture on the steps while continuing to exist on her 'leaving-the-Met' walking trajectory. As I passed the pair yesterday in the park, one said calmly, "So then the wife committed suicide...", and the other responded indignantly, "Oh, Jesus!" and they went about their conversation and their... stroll? It's very cynical to find any remote kind of humor from such an extremely dire conversation, but the snippet still caught my attention as fodder for www.overheardinnewyork.com and I considered posting it there. I would never want to imply there is any real humor in overhearing something so sad from such untroubled-looking people, but it is ironic and forces questions about what life in parts of some 'certain segments' can be like.

I was at the new Apple store on 5th Avenue this afternoon when I read online about the explosion on the Upper East Side. I read that the perpetrator, a doctor, owned the building and demolished it in an attempt to commit suicide and simulateously disinherit his estranged wife, who he labelled a "gold digger" and of whom he said he wanted to make an "ash and rubble digger". Apparently 15 people were injured, though all were alive at the time; 10 of those injured were firefighters. The building is on 62nd Street between Madison and Park - pretty much the prime area of one of the primest neighborhoods in the city. The Apple store is on 59th & 5th and 5th is directly adjacent to Madison, so I walked the few blocks to the site of the explosion.

Traffic was blocked on 62nd street from 5th Avenue to Park, and much of that area was lined with ambulances and other emergency vehicles; the general public was blocked from 62nd between Madison and Park, so I joined a gathering of onlookers standing at the intersection of 62nd and Madison. NBC Channel 4 was filming on the corner, and I stood in front of the gate that blocked pedestrian traffic and watched a crane move charred rubble from the recent building site to the street. Standing next to me was a woman who was visibly upset and began telling me how she know "both of them" and also the other doctor whose office was located in the building and who was also injured. She said she felt weak in the knees and in shock, and that she worked as a waitress "in his restaurant for 18 years." I told her what I'd read and she looked even more shocked and I was surprised that the suicide/revenge motive was news. She kept shaking her head as she had been before and went on saying how this guy was a moron and an idiot. We were still talking when she turned around and saw a dark-haired woman and exclaimed, "There she is now!" and went to her. I wish I knew to whom exactly her references were made.

Another middle aged-plus woman who apparently also lived in the vincinity stepped into her place and kept checking my knowledge of the details of the hairy story of the motivation, and seemed to have a marginally sadistic desire to inform me of some shocking detail but apparently knew little more than I did. The gathering of people partially blocked the walkway across 62nd Street, and an NYPD officer kept repeating "Please step aside, please keep moving" whenever the walk sign changed. Most of those gathered there happened (perhaps not coincidentally) to be white people, though one black woman stood just to the left of the middle-aged plus woman beside me: at some point the black woman reinforced the officer's words by calling out loudly, "Please step aside!!" - the middle-aged plus woman gave me some kind of 'knowing look' and asked me rhetorically, "Who is SHE?" After that she left, giving me an ironic smile and saying "I'm glad he wasn't MY doctor!" The blond woman I'd spoken with before her was still talking in horror with the dark-haired woman.

I thought I should probably move on too, and had to navigate around several more middle-aged plus (plus) ladies observing; the space was tight and I was forced to crowd past one lady and her shopping bags. I avoided squashing the Emporio Armani and noticed a magazine popping out of another bag. I wasn't able to read the title but couldn't miss the largest headline, which ran - in red - "Class and Murder". That would not have to be ironic.

The US Education System

The OECD's USA Briefing Note as a part of their Education at a Glance 2005 survey "summarizes the main characteristics of the US education system", and is very succinct and interesting. It was developed in part for the purpose of benchmarking the US education system's performance for the EU 25 countries who have collectively set a target of overtaking its performance by 2010.

Items of note include that per-student spending is second highest to Switzerland while early-secondary educational outcomes are below-average to average, implying a highly inefficient system. The teachers in public primary schools teach at least 50% more hours than the OECD average, with the second-highest OECD salary, in the second-highest income-per-capita country, which might make the in-country living standard of teachers similar across the higher income-per-capita countries (ie. relatively low), while US teachers work on average 50% more hours per year. The educational attainment of 15-year-olds is measured in three areas: literacy, math and problem solving. Scores in math and problem solving are below average (of OECD countries) and not abnormally distributed; scores in literacy are average but divided, with a top-performing minority and counterbalancing majority.

The article asks specifically how the US can have such a strong knowledge economy without having a stronger education system, and considers the possibility thatlevel of education does not matter to the knowledge economy, although US levels of education tie with the UK in having the greatest impact on income level in the OECD countries. The US' strong knowledge economy is attributed partly to a greater flexibility in the US labor market along the US' advantage in having had much higher secondary and tertiary education rates than other OECD countries in earlier decades, though this advantage is shown to have eroded. The university education system is still considered the major strength (and draws twice average per-student funding), though whether this strength extends to all universities isn't considered. However, credit is given to the university system's sheer size, plus the fact that it educates around 30% of all international students, a large percentage of whom study the sciences or engineering, and a high level of job-related continuing education.

It's concluding point hardly fits a summary of the education system proposed as a benchmark for successful performance in the knowledge economy: "Should the US Worry About Its Education System?" To this point, the No Child Left Behind act is provided as evidence the US is facing its educational concerns. So it seems the current advantage for the US in maintaining its status comes from the sheer size of its educational system along with its ability to attract international participation, and significant investment in those who are successful within the system. This implies that outside of the ability to attract international participation, the US' method for staying at the forefront of the knowledge economy is largely brute force and reliant on strong participation in the university system, which is not helped by the growing necessary reliance on heavy loan debt for the majority of the student population. Or, for that matter, by the increasing high school dropout rate; in 2004 68% of 9th graders were expected to complete high school, as opposed to 85% 40-50 years ago and 87% 10-20 years ago.

A separate, but equally interesting article by Jonathan Kozol is also well worth a read, and potentially very enlightening about the literacy divide. (Thanks, Eddie!)

Taking it too far

Is it unreasonable to call this a virtual training ground for a new Jihad? The word is more than a bit provocative, but I doubt madrassahs of the sort shown in Syriana would mind if they somehow had the funding for similar entertainment tools for enriching one's personal spiritual journey.

"Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life."

via Metafilter

On a lighter note, I discovered a former neighbor today via boingboing when I recognized a pic of a flowerbox made from an old Mac g3 box from a stoop in Brooklyn. Honestly, I even considered posting it on boingboing... :)

A Start

This is the first post of something long in coming.