http://leftfielder.org Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:45:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was reading an article recently that described how US students are falling behind their peers in other countries in terms of educational achievement. Lots of people are decrying this as a terrible thing, and there was a lot of inflammatory rhetoric. I would very much like to ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/03/17/good-disguised-as-bad/ Okay, we talked before about the Texas curriculum fiasco. To reiterate my basic belief, and my primary problem with what those people are doing: curriculum ought to be set by teachers based on the needs and interests of their students, not on the political whims of elected officials. But after ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/03/12/a-fool-does-not-delight-in-understanding/ There once was a guy from Japan Who's limerick's just wouldn't scan When told they were short He'd never retort -- (If Mike goes long enough without giving me positive examples of good leftfielder posts, eventually my posts devolve into things like this...) http://leftfielder.org/2010/03/11/a-limerick/ I learned from a student recently that the FBI can listen to you through your cellphone, even if your cellphone is off! I don't have much to say about this, except that I find it incredibly creepy. Sure, the FBI probably isn't listening to what I say - ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/03/10/cell-phones-and-big-brother/ Can anybody explain to me why it is that people can receive retirement benefits from social security, even if they're still working? Wages go up over the course of a career, such that older workers tend to have higher wages than their younger counterparts. So, people who have ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/03/02/social-security/ An unusual thing happened at dinner tonight. A couple comes into the restaurant with a dog. The hostess tells them that the dog has to wait outside, and they tell her that its a service animal; the fellow is handicapped, and that he needs it with him. ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/02/24/service-animals/ Forget global warming. Forget health care. Forget education, and poverty, and terrorism. The world faces a much bigger problem: a limited supply of curling stones. This is a serious crisis. Quick, Obama - borrow another trillion dollars and get some people working on this... http://leftfielder.org/2010/02/20/uh-oh/ It's that day again. The worst day of the year. The day that society rubs it in the face of those of us who can't find love. As if it wasn't bad enough that we have to deal with the social, emotional, health, financial, and psychological burdens ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/02/14/annual-valentines-day-rant/ The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is the primary handbook of clinical psychology. It defines psychological disorders and their symptomatic characteristics. It is the ultimate authority on pathological abnormality for psychologists. And its being revised. While my area of expertise is not clinical, I feel there are ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/02/12/dsm-v/ I am constantly surprised, when talking to policy makers, how rarely they ask the question "then what happens?" when developing their policy. Imagine you need a source of revenue, but you don't want to burden the taxpayer. A surprisingly large number of policy makers "solve" this dilemma by ... http://leftfielder.org/2010/02/08/looking-past-the-first-step/