I'm curious about this book... I think I'll read it.

I'm a bit miffed about the following segment of the review, however :

Lakoff’s proposal to reframe taxes as membership fees flunks the test: if you don’t pay your membership fees, you lose your benefits; but if you don’t pay your taxes, you go to jail.

I should think that going to jail is directly analagous to "losing your benefits" in some organization of which you are a member. In jail, you lose the benefits (freedom, employment, etc.) granted to the rest of the citizenry.

I'm not seeking necessarily to defend this particular frame of Lakoff's, just arguing that Mr. Saletan didn't convincingly dismiss it, I don't think.

As for this...

If frames overpower rational criticism, Pinker asks, then why do Lakoff and other quasi-relativists write books rationally criticizing frames? The medium belies the message.

I disagree. When Lakoff or someone in his camp say that "frames overpower rational criticism", they mean that in aggregate, frames represent a more reliable mechanism for convincing people of an underlying "truth". Individuals may or may not be swayed by it, but you can't necessarily analyse groups as collections of individuals. Some individuals are smarter than others, or more interested in rational analysis, or more prone to skepticism, or whatever.

In short, the percentage of people who will read Lakoff's or Pinker's books is small and these are, by self selection, in the group that values rational analysis, for the most part. For them, it's a valid medium, and a valid message.

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature - Steven Pinker - Books - Review - New York Times

Decius wrote:

She's extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare told The Associated Press. "And she's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

The quote above is a Massachusetts State Police Officer publicly threatening to murder an MIT student who accidentally showed up at the airport wearing an electronic art project. She has, yet again, been charged with carrying out a hoax. Remember kids, anytime a Massachusetts police officer is confused, its your fault for confusing them, and not theirs for being fucking stupid and paranoid, and you are likely to go to prison or worse if it happens.

[ Yeah, this is a massive over-reaction and the quote above is extremely disturbing evidence of the mindset of law enforcement personnel (not to mention a lot of citizens).

The proper reaction might have been to approach her and inquire about the electronics. The fact that it has blinking lights on the exterior seems like a good indicator that it's *not* a bomb. In fact, airport security just provided a valuable lesson for anyone who might actually try to do such a thing... send someone in with a "fake bomb" as a smoke screen. Der-doink, Boston.

She probably should have known better than to go to an airport like that. I'm really not overly concerned about the chilling effect on Makers and hackers in this case. Again, the reaction was disproportionate, but even in a relatively sane society, you ought to expect an impromptu interview with a cop if you go to an airport with hastily constructed electronics on your shirt.

The genuinely sad truth is that if they'd shot her, a large proportion of the country would think it was the right reaction, and an even larger proportion would briefly reflect that it's a sad and wrong thing, and then promptly forget about it.

Side note, not relevant to the above, as an "art project", I think the hoodie sucks, but maybe it's just not my style, like Dali or 99% of comic strips.

RE: MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with art project

Police in Bicester set up a drug testing station in a pub, and swabbed the palms of every customer before they were allowed to enter. The swab was checked for drug residue. Anyone who tested positive was searched on the spot for possession of drugs. 150 people submitted to the test.

The police explained that it was part of a crackdown on violent street crime.

That is fucked up. I would refuse the test and never return to that establishment again.

Pub customers happily line up for drug testing - Boing Boing

Coop President Jerry P. Murphy '73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes." The apparent new policy could be a response to efforts by Crimsonreading.org--an online database that allows students to find the books they need for each course at discounted prices from several online booksellers--from writing down the ISBN identification numbers for books at the Coop and then using that information for their Web site. Murphy said the Coop considers that information the Coop's intellectual property.

Um, no.

Harvard bookstore: Our prices are

Skinner’s classic article is reinterpreted in light of contemporary events. Skinner principally blamed cognitive psychology for the shameful state of American education. This paper asserts it is the philosophy of progressive education and its dominant influence over how teachers are trained are largely the cause of American educational ineffectiveness. The authors analyze progressive education and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) using organizational, metacontingency, and macrocontingency analysis. The authors support NCLB’s and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA) emphasis on science-based pedagogy as a step in the right direction.

This was interesting for me to read. I'm not an expert in the field, but it's of great interest to me.

I found myself disagreeing with, at least, the tone of this article, as it is extremely combative. I'm likewise uncomfortable with the application of the term "progressive" with negative connotations. This may be a well understood usage in this discipline, so I won't get hung up on it, but certainly many of the derision of "progressives" issued herein do not fit well with my notions of modern *political* progressivism.

I should also note that my experiences as a student don't bear out their claims. There's a segment in which the authors state that by 1990 the US was virtually overrun by the kind of terrible education they excoriate (e.g. experience learning and so forth). I was 12 in 1990 and do not recall this being the mode in which I was instructed, in general. I had good teachers and bad teachers and subjects I liked and others that I didn't, but I absolutely had standards to achieve. Perhaps NY was one of the "good" states back then.

My overall reaction is that I'm disinclined to support the kind of hyper standardized and impersonal provisions of NCLB, but certainly don't support education that's largely divorced from notions of measurement. I also sympathize with the potential for NCLB to eviscerate public education in favor of privatization (a line of thinking the authors essentially dismiss as paranoiac and absurd), which isn't really something I support.

I think a hybrid must be achieved that makes use of foundational education combined with a more free-form application / experiential component. This is briefly mentioned, but not exactly championed by these authors. I also see a problematic trend in proponents of highly structured systems like NCLB to treat all subject areas the same way. There are ways to measure competency in English, just as there are for Mathematics and the sciences, but they're not the same ways.

Finally, I think it's quite simplistic -- in fact, it's dishonest in the extreme -- to lay all of the problems of modern education at the feet of "progressive education," even if such methods were contributory. One cannot have a serious discussion on the matter without including some analysis of the political and social culture during the same time frames. The political right has led a systematic attack on the scientific method for years, even as these authors try to claim that some stripe of progressivism has been responsible for the death of experimentalism and scientific, results oriented pedagogy.

This is a topic I wish to learn a great deal more about. I think it's among the most crucial issues we can put our minds and hands to.

“The Shame of American Education” Redux

Chambers said the lawsuit was triggered by a federal suit filed against a judge who recently barred words such as 'rape' and 'victim' from a sexual assault trial.

The accuser in the criminal case, Tory Bowen, sued Lancaster District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront, claiming that he violated her free speech rights.

Chambers said Bowen's lawsuit is inappropriate because the Nebraska Supreme Court has already considered the case and federal courts follow the decisions of state supreme courts on state matters.

I'n not a lawyer and not intimately familiar with these cases, but just from what I've gleaned in the article, I think this Bowen woman has a point, at least, if not a case, and Chambers is being an asshole.

Also, no explanation is given for how a free speech complaint is a "state matter", which I'm curious about.

All legal details aside, I think it's pretty ridiculous for a judge to bar "words such as 'rape' and 'victim' from a sexual assault trial". Until someone can explain a good reason for this (there may be one), I'm gonna conclude that the district judge, the Nebraska Supreme Court and State Sen. Chambers are a bunch of jackasses, at the very least.

Senator Sues God!!!

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night.

w00t!

Now i can actually read all those memed articles i want to check out.

-k

Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site - New York Times

Sums up my concerns rather well.

"No, no, really, we've almost got it! Just another 6 months and we'll be in good shape..."

McCain on Iraq.

ROFLMAO! Someone actually shows some creativity on cable TV, Emmy gives them an award for it, then turns around and censors them! The irony is simply delicious.

[ Agreed, this is great stuff. Between Kathy Griffin and Dick in a Box winning, them being forced to hamstring their broadcast to figure out how to handle that is really something.

Death to old media! -k]

Griffin's 'offensive' Emmy speech to be censored - CNN.com

SEPTEMBER 11--A black West Virginia woman was sexually assaulted, stabbed, and tortured while being held captive by her white abductors, one of whom told her, "That's what we do to niggers around here."

Fuck it, kill 'em all. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go straight to the chair.

Six Held In West Virginia Torture Horror - September 11, 2007