Thursday evening I went a great class on sharpening hand saws at the Metro Woodcraft store. Continue reading
Women in Mathematics: A scary chain
From a note at the end of _+3=5+7=_: it depends what ‘equals’ equals (An interesting post generally, BTW):
….a scary chain: Female first and second grade teachers who are anxious about math pass that anxiety along to their female students. More female students are likely to agree with the suggestion that boys are better than girls at math after being exposed to this anxiety, and the female students who did agree with this stereotype performed worse in math as the year went on. Great article and PNAS makes the full text publicly available.
From the abstract of that article:
We show that when the math-anxious individuals are female elementary school teachers, their math anxiety carries negative consequences for the math achievement of their female students. Early elementary school teachers in the United States are almost exclusively female (>90%), and we provide evidence that these female teachers’ anxieties relate to girls’ math achievement via girls’ beliefs about who is good at math.
About those full-body scanners….
Barnes & Noble: The final chapter?
The Economist looks at the troubles of the bookstore chain.
Continue reading
Monday night Irish class, August 9, 2010
Irish Class, August 9. 2010
Rang Gaeilge, 9ú lá Mí na Lúnasa 2010
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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ
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| cóip | copy | f2 pl cóipeanna |
| le seachtain amháin | for one week | |
| inis | island | f2 |
| inis | tell | vn insint |
Go Maolaí Air “May he back off”
pt. 7
Scríofa ag Wes Koster
Women in Mathematics

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal via Skepchick.
Sex and Roman coins
At Beachcombing’s Bizarre History Blog. Pictures definitely NSFW.
On the current Blackberry controversy….
Gulf states order Blackberry users to cover their phones in a tiny burqa
Some businessmen believe that making their phone wear a burqa can be very liberating. “It’s great,” said one, “with the veil in place I am free to walk about with my Blackberry in public without the feeling that people are staring lustily at my multi-media application. It also covers my shame for not owning an iPhone.”
The Saudi government have promised that anyone who refuses to dress their Blackberry in a burqa will face harsh punishment. “I am not saying exactly what we will do,” said their Minister for Justice, “but suffice to say that it isn’t so easy to text with your toes.”
Via BoingBoing
Don’t be a Spock!
Stepping through time
Russian photographer (and Photoshopper) Sergey Larenkov merges WWII-era photos with contemporary shots of identical locations in Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Leningrad, and other European cities, to haunting effect.