Thursday, November 30, 2006

Today's Highlights

Re getting more mathcasts on Youtube and elsewhere:
I, on the other hand, have direct and immediate needs, given my sub- and/or counter-culture doesn't get much of a footprint in K12, thanks to a closed minded math teaching ethnicity.

I need vidclips communicating the angle/frequency distinction (4D vs 4D++), A & B mods assembling polyhedra with specific ratios, vector arithmetic, Couplers, Fuller Map unfoldings, global data within hexapent overlays, octahedron-tetrahedron space fills as used in architecture and crystallography, geodesic spheres (and domes), sphere packing arrangements, figurate and polyhedral numbers, concentric hierarchy of polys, T & E mods, Euler's Law for Polyhedra, Descartes' Deficit and so on. The stuff of basic numeracy in other words. [1]
Re vouchers (i.e. using taxes to support private sectarian religious schools):
Where I see vouchers I'd hope to also see a massive tax revolt, as patriotic Americans protested the misuse of the state's power to tax on behalf of religious and other private sectarian institutions. Paying taxes to such a regime would go against everything in our founding documents. Such a regime would be treasonous by definition and should not be permitted to use any of the signs and seals of the United States of America. [2]
Then there's this gem from Al Jazeera:
For his part, al-Maliki denied that Iran had any influence over Iraq or any part of the embattled capital Baghdad.

He also said Iraq will never allow any foreign control of his war-wracked country. "We have repeatedly said, and we reaffirm once more, that we will never allow anyone to control any part of Iraq," al-Maliki said, when asked about alleged Iranian interference in Iraq.

"There are [foreign] interferences but any talk about [foreign] control is exaggerated."
I'm sure intelligent readers won't miss the irony in having this be about Iran, given which country is currently rolling tanks through the streets of Baghdad.