David Weinberger, Too Big to Know

At Amazon, David Weinberger, Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room.

The Truth Behind Female Orgasam

Is this even "news you can use"?

I don't know?

Maybe Maxim's hurting for traffic, because some of the stuff they post over there is truly bizarre. If it get clicks I guess it's a go?

See, "SCIENTISTS AND PORN STARS REVEAL THE TRUTH BEHIND FEMALE EJACULATION: What does it mean when she squirts?"

Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

Out February 27, 2018, at Amazon, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

California State University to End Placement Exams and Remedial Classes for Freshmen

Remember my entry from a couple of weeks back, "Eloy Ortiz Oakley, California Community College Chancellor, Calls for End to Algebra Requirement for Non-STEM Majors."

The eradication of high standards for California's public education students continues apace. In a few years, students will be able to enter the university, and then likely graduate with a "four-year degree," without any foundation or completion of rigorous math, sciences, and languages.

Educational officials no doubt are dealing with a wave of unprepared students, thrust into the system by the massive open immigration we've had for the last few decades. It's really reaching critical mass. When I started teaching at Long Beach City College in fall of 2000, fully one-third of students enrolled came from a traditional white working-class background. I thought that was minuscule at the time, but now the number's down to about 13 percent white students.

There's nothing wrong with the diversity. In fact, Latinos at my college are more than half of the student population, and they're totally fine. Many, though not all, are indeed very outstanding. On the other hand, I'm having more and more students ---- including many Asians ---- who literally do not speak English. I don't know how they expect to succeed. But they're here and this is the reality in California.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Cal State will no longer require placement exams and remedial classes for freshmen":

Cal State plans to drop placement exams in math and English as well as the noncredit remedial courses that more than 25,000 freshmen have been required to take each fall — a radical move away from the way public universities traditionally support students who come to college less prepared than their peers.

In an executive order issued late Wednesday, Chancellor Timothy P. White directed the nation’s largest public university system to revamp its approach to remedial education and assess new freshmen for college readiness and course placement by using high school grades, ACT and SAT scores, previous classroom performance and other measures that administrators say provide a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of students’ knowledge.

Cal State will no longer make those students who may need extra help take the entry-level mathematics (ELM) test and the English placement test (EPT).

The new protocol, which will go into effect in fall 2018, “facilitates equitable opportunity for first-year students to succeed through existing and redesigned education models,” White wrote in a memorandum to the system’s 23 campus presidents, who will be responsible for working with faculty to implement the changes.

The executive order comes at a time when educators and policymakers across the nation are questioning the effectiveness of traditional remedial education and placement exams. At Cal State, about 40% of freshman each year are considered not ready for college-level work and required to take remedial classes that do not count toward their degrees.

Currently, students who enter Cal State without demonstrating college readiness in math and/or English are required to take up to three traditional remedial classes before they are allowed to enroll in courses that count toward their degrees. (If students do not pass these remedial courses during the first year, they are removed from university rolls.)

The problem is that these noncredit remedial courses cost the students more money and time, keep many in limbo and often frustrate them to the point that some eventually drop out, administrators said. In a recent study of similar college-prep work at community colleges, the Public Policy Institute of California found that remedial programs — also called developmental education — largely fail to help most students complete their academic or vocational programs.

Under the new system, all Cal State students will be allowed to take courses that count toward their degrees beginning on Day 1. Students who need additional support in math or English, for example, could be placed in “stretch” courses that simultaneously provide remedial help and allow them to complete the general math and English credits required for graduation.

Faculty are also encouraged to explore other innovative ways to embed additional academic support within a college-level course. A few other states have experimented with these approaches, and the results so far are encouraging, administrators said.

“This will have a tremendous effect on the number of units students accumulate in their first year of college,” said James T. Minor, Cal State’s senior strategist for academic success and inclusive excellence. “It will have an enormous effect on college affordability, on the number of semesters that a student is required to be enrolled in before they earn a degree, and it will have a significant impact on the number of students that ultimately cross a commencement stage with a degree in hand, ready to move into the workforce, ready to move into graduate or professional school."

In addition to redesigning remedial requirements systemwide, the executive order instructs campuses to strengthen their summer Early Start programs...

More.

The end result will of course be to exacerbate social inequality, not reduce it. The economically privileged will continue to have access to very high-quality education, in all aspects of rigorous training, especially math and sciences. And these kind of people will float to the top. It's a system of social sorting that's been going on for a while, made more intense by the nature of the high-tech knowledge economy.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, California Community College Chancellor, Calls for End to Algebra Requirement for Non-STEM Majors

I know Eloy Oakley. Rather well, in fact. He was my college president for about a decade, then took the state chancellor's job last year.

Algebra is a huge hurdle. I suspect it's only a matter of time before the requirement's eliminated. Indeed, it's only a matter of time until GE math education is eliminated. That's the way it's going nowadays. Fewer and fewer difficult requirements (like being able to read and write at college level), and thus more assembly-line degrees delivered. Students literally can't pass basic critical thinking essay exams in my classes, but my teaching's an outlier. I don't care about getting great student evaluations. I'm not worried about being popular. My job's not on the line. I don't check "Rate My Professors." I just teach a rigorous curriculum and maintain high standards. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so, nowadays. You wouldn't believe how much push-back I get from all the "progressive" administrators, who will turn any issue or conflict into a civil rights case, almost always to the benefit of the student.

No wonder new teachers quit the profession after two years. It's so much hassle these days.

In any case, at the L.A. Times, "Drop algebra requirement for non-STEM majors, California community colleges chief says":

The chancellor of the California Community Colleges system says intermediate algebra should no longer be required to earn an associate degree — unless students are in the fields of science, technology, engineering or math.

Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who heads the nation’s largest community college system of 114 campuses, told The Times that intermediate algebra is seen as a major barrier for students of color, preventing too many from completing degrees. About three-fourths of those who transfer to four-year universities are non-STEM majors, he said, who should be able to demonstrate quantitative reasoning skills by taking statistics or other math courses more applicable to their fields.

“College-level algebra is probably the greatest barrier for students — particularly first-generation students, students of color — obtaining a credential,” he said. “If we know we're disadvantaging large swaths of students who we need in the workforce, we have to question why. And is algebra really the only means we have to determine whether a student is going to be successful in their life?

“I think there's a growing body of evidence and advocates that say 'no' — that there are more relevant, just as rigorous, math pathways that we feel students should have the ability to take,” he said.

Debate over algebra requirements has escalated in recent years. Failure to complete intermediate algebra has kept tens of thousands of California community college students in limbo each year, sparking contentious criticism of the one-size-fits-all math requirement in the state and much of the nation.

California State University administrators have been open to exploring alternative math pathways; they are consulting with faculty to determine which disciplines need to continue requiring intermediate algebra and which could be more flexible.

Oakley made the comments in an interview about a report released Monday that sets ambitious goals to improve student success.

The report by the Foundation for California Community Colleges noted that the state will need 1.1 million more workers with bachelor’s degrees by 2030 — but that only 48% of the system’s students earned a certificate or associate degree or transferred to a four-year university within six years.

“This anemic completion rate is a troubling sign for the overall health of California’s higher education and workforce development system,” the report said...

More.

Austin Ruse, Fake Science

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, available July 17th, Austin Ruse, Fake Science: Exposing the Left's Skewed Statistics, Fuzzy Facts, and Dodgy Data.

Is it Ethical to Have Children?

Of course it's ethical.

It's only unethical if you're a leftist anti-humanist.

FWIW, at the far-left Foreign Policy, "As Environmental Catastrophe Looms, Is it Ethical to Have Children?"

Polar Bears: The Poster Child for Climate Change

Leftists have convinced themselves that conservatives are in "denial" of climate change, hence stories about how President Trump believes it's a "hoax."

Of course, that's not it. The issue is whether human activity is causing climate change, because the climate's been changing for hundreds of millions of years, before humans used fossil fuels to power their survival.

The true science is on the side of the skeptics. Progressives are akin to a quasi-religious cult.

In any case, seen just now at the New York Times, and the related article at bottom:

In a new ad for The New York Times, Josh Haner reflects on the effects of climate change on polar bears. pic.twitter.com/IVkEAwo1aj

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 2, 2017

Polar bears’ path to decline runs through Alaskan Village https://t.co/gNvJkGI5a4

— NYT National News (@NYTNational) January 1, 2017

'Intersectional Quantum Physics'

That's not really a thing.

But see the Other McCain, "Feminist Insanity at Taxpayer Expense: ‘Intersectional Quantum Physics’."

U.S. to Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement

Some of the best news ever.

Trump appears poised to announce U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. https://t.co/kNNtZIJZhs

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 31, 2017

The #ParisClimateAgreement is non-binding. Leftist elites are losing their lunch over this lame, useless pact.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 31, 2017

Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think

Put this one on the gift lists for your tree-hugging, vision-quest enviro-leftist family members.

From Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human.

Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise

*BUMPED.*

He's a professor at the Naval War College.

At Amazon, Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters.

Climate Scientist Judith Curry Resigns from Georgia Institute of Technology (VIDEO)

She's a famous, widely-published expert in climate change and global warming science, and she's just had enough.

She says she feels like she's got knives sticking out of her back as she walks around the halls of her college.

She's going into the private sector, where she expects she'll have the opportunity to pursue her research, and have an impact, in a free market for scientific inquiry.

Pretty fascinating, and an excellent example of the left's depravity and totalitarianism on today's campuses.

Watch, at Blazing Cat Fur, "‘Knives Sticking Out of My Back’: Global Warming Skeptic Tells Tucker Carlson Why She Left Academia."

And at Reason, "Georgia Tech Climatologist Judith Curry Resigns over 'the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science."

More, at Watts Up with That, "Dr. Judith Curry chooses integrity over the state of climate science":

Yesterday, I was saddened to learn that Dr. Judith Curry had resigned her position at Georgia Tech. At the same time, I was impressed by her reasoning, and with her candor. I’m certain that she’ll still make some wonderful contributions in her new role. I thought this part of her post was very germane...

Keep reading.

'Medical Humanities in the Digital Age' at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

After reading this piece at the College Fix, "Professors tell students: Drop class if you dispute man-made climate change," I sent the following email to the instructors of the course, as well as the university administration:

Hello Chancellor Shockley-Zalabak:

According to an article at the College Fix, your campus will offer an online course called "Medical Humanities in the Digital Age" for the fall semester.

Apparently, the faculty members leading the course have sent enrolled students an email indicating, "The point of departure for this course is based on the scientific premise that human induced climate change is valid and occurring. We will not, at any time, debate the science of climate change, nor will the ‘other side’ of the climate change debate be taught or discussed in this course..."

The email goes on to tell enrolled students to, essentially, GTFO if you don't agree with the ideological agenda of this course.

This is an absolutely pathetic case of all the worst of institutional progressivism in American academe. For the record, the science of anthropomorphic global warming is not settled. In fact, the idea that "97 percent of scientists" agree with the hypothesis of man-made climate change is nothing more than an urban legend. The earth's climate has been changing for millions of years. We're currently in a long warming period that began in the 19th century. The question of humanity's carbon consumption contributing to changes in the global climate remains a matter of scientific investigation.

Moreover, to suggest, in a university course, that there should be no debate on a topic of great public interest and import is in fact the epitome of anti-science and irrationalism. Such statements of refusal to consider opposing ideas, much less to answer questions or concerns of skeptics, is the height of intolerance and anti-intellectualism.

I hope that you and your administration will think long and hard about the reputation that is accruing to your institution in light of the news of this course offering. No self-respecting scientist or scholar would dare be associated with such close-minded snobbery. I further hope that you and your administration are taking appropriate steps to remedy this shameful episode, and to restore the integrity of your school's standing as an institution of higher learning.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Donald Kent Douglas, Ph.D.
Irvine, California

Please join me in sharing your thoughts with the course instructors and the administration. The university's home page is here.

More, from Anthony Watts, "Intolerance by the Climate Thought Police at University of Colorado."

Heartbreaking Images Show Some Zika Damage May Not Be Obvious at Birth

The New York Times calls Zika a "vicious and unpredictable virus."

Frankly, we know very little about it, and a new radiological study indicates that children inflicted with Zika may face additional brain and body abnormalities as they grow.

Intense.

At the scientific journal, Radiology, "Congenital Brain Abnormalities and Zika Virus: What the Radiologist Can Expect to See Prenatally and Postnatally."

New @radiology_rsna study details 45 Brazilian babies whose mothers were infected with #Zika during pregnancy. https://t.co/Dciw2NCRhm

— Radiology (@radiology_rsna) August 23, 2016

And at the New York Times, "Brain Scans of Brazilian Babies Show Array of Zika Effects."

Zika's calamitous attack on the brains of babies — as seen from the inside https://t.co/8JJug37KV1

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 24, 2016

'The Hunt'

Tonight, on BBC America, "Kill or Die":

Great White Shark Attacks from Behind (VIDEO)

Tonight's the last night of Shark Week.



Previously, "Alien Sharks: Close Encounters (VIDEO)," and "More Alien Sharks (VIDEO)."

More Alien Sharks (VIDEO)

It's still shark week, heh.



Previously, "Alien Sharks: Close Encounters (VIDEO)."

Alien Sharks: Close Encounters (VIDEO)

It's Shark Week at Discovery Channel.

My wife popped it on to get away from all the blathering talking heads on CNN after the Trump trade speech, lol.

Honestly, though, this is a fantastic series.

Watch:



I'll post more videos as we go along. Absolutely freakin' amazing.

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant to Shut Down

Instapundit had this yesterday, "IF YOU DON’T SUPPORT NUCLEAR POWER, YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT CARBON EMISSIONS: Are Greens Coming Around To Nuclear Power?"

Well, if the greens are coming around, they're not around California.

See the Los Angeles Times, "PG&E to close Diablo Canyon, California's last nuclear power plant":

One of California’s largest energy utilities took a bold step in the 21st century electricity revolution with an agreement to close its last operating nuclear plant and develop more solar, wind and other clean power technologies.

The decision announced Tuesday by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to close its beleaguered Diablo Canyon nuclear plant within the next decade runs counter to the nuclear industry’s arguments that curbing carbon emissions and combating climate change require use of nuclear power, which generates the most electricity without harmful emissions.

Instead, PG&E joined with longtime adversaries such as the Friends of the Earth environmental group to craft a deal that will bring the company closer to the mandate that 50% of California’s electricity generation come from renewable energy sources by 2030.

PG&E’s agreement will close the book on the state’s history as a nuclear pioneer, but adds to its clean energy reputation. California already leads the nation by far in use of solar energy generated by rooftop panels and by sprawling power arrays in the desert.

“California is already a leader in curtailing greenhouse gases,” said Peter Bradford, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Now they’re saying they can go even further. That’s potentially a model for other situations.”

Under the proposal, the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County would be retired by PG&E after its current U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses expire in November 2024 and August 2025.

The power produced by Diablo Canyon’s two nuclear reactors would be replaced with investment in a greenhouse-gas-free portfolio of energy efficiency, renewables and energy storage, PG&E said. The proposal is contingent on a number of regulatory actions, including approvals from the California Public Utilities Commission.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, built against a seaside cliff near Avila Beach, provides 2,160 megawatts of electricity for Central and Northern California — enough to power more than 1.7 million homes.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after a long debate over the fate of the plant, which sits near several earthquake fault lines. The Hosgri Fault, located three miles from Diablo Canyon, was discovered in 1971, three years after construction of the plant began...

More.

Plus, "It'll take time — and $3.8 billion — to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant."

RELATED: From Joel Kotkin, at the O.C. Register, "Climate justice: California's state religion."