Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 40

• One of Our Own

  By ljd42 on December 3, 2020

  

  Was Gregor Demarkian really the “Armenian-American Hercule Poirot”? That’s what the popular press called him. Jane Haddam presents his last case in One of Our Own, the final and 30th novel in her insufficiently famous Demarkian series. She finished writing it shortly… Read More ›

• How do you spell царь in English? Czar, tsar, csar, or tzar?

  By ljd42 on December 2, 2020

  Take a word that’s written in one alphabet (Cyrillic, say). Now spell it in another alphabet (Roman, say). Why? Well, Russian is written in Cyrillic, but it’s often necessary to write Russian words in English, using the familiar Roman alphabet…. Read More ›

• A Whiff of Death, by Isaac Asimov

  By ljd42 on December 1, 2020

  

  Another academic mystery, this time by Isaac Asimov. Yes, Asimov was a prolific writer of science fiction and science fact, but he also wrote mysteries — mostly related to science fiction and science fact. A Whiff of Death was one of those… Read More ›

• English is weird.

  By ljd42 on November 30, 2020

  

  No, I’m not talking about the notorious difficulties of English spelling. Nor am I talking about the oddities of English idioms and compound words, such as the all-too-well-known “Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?”… Read More ›

• I know it’s hard to believe, but you too can use a simple formula to generate all the prime numbers!

  By ljd42 on November 28, 2020

  

  You probably thought that there is no such formula — one that will generate all and only the prime numbers (formula, not sieve). Right? Well, it turns out that there is! (More or less.) Keep reading… Just start with the… Read More ›

• Linguists

  By ljd42 on November 27, 2020

  

  Mouse-over text: “Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you’re currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out.”

• Happy Thanksgiving: celebrating the day Americans fed undocumented aliens from Europe

  By ljd42 on November 26, 2020

  

• Tavolo!

  By ljd42 on November 25, 2020

  

  Barbara and I had yummy take-out yesterday from Tavolo (at least two dinners’ worth for the two of us): pan seared duck breast with smashed 12 moon farm pumpkin, grilled asparagus, cinnamon, vincoto; house meatballs with marinara and parmesan; shrimp… Read More ›

• A number of galactic proportions

  By ljd42 on November 24, 2020

  

  Take, say, 73 little cubes (blocks or ordinary D6 dice). Could you arrange them into three perfect cubes? I’ll wait while you try to solve this problem… OK, you probably started by taking 64 of them to make a 4×4×4… Read More ›

• Ivy is a Weed

  By ljd42 on November 22, 2020

  

  Any good academic mystery is always a  treat. Robert M. Roseth’s Ivy is a Weed is a good academic mystery. The story takes place at a thinly disguised University of Washington, Seattle campus. For the most part it’s a spot-on satire of bureaucratic… Read More ›

• Sorry, but we’re just not going to be able to get rid of the Electoral College.

  By ljd42 on November 20, 2020

  

  Finally the American people have woken up and understand the Electoral College (EC), or at least its importance. Well, at least somewhat. My Quantitative Reasoning (QR) students at the Crimson Summer Academy (CSA) certainly understand it: how many electors each… Read More ›

• Pronounce bruschetta, schism, and schedule. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

  By ljd42 on November 18, 2020

  

  No, the “sch” in bruschetta is not pronounced like the English “sh”! It’s pronounced like the English “sk.” Bruschetta is an Italian word, not a German word, so don’t pronounce it as in Schadenfreude, to quote James Harbeck in the link below. Actually, the issue is slightly more… Read More ›

• My ethnicity puzzle. Any ideas?

  By ljd42 on November 17, 2020

  

  Can you help me solve my ethnicity puzzle? You might have some ideas, especially if you yourself have Ashkenazi heritage. Ancestry sent me this information about my paternal grandfather (from the 1910 Federal census). Does everything look right to you?… Read More ›

• Is this the life of a typical college freshman during the pandemic?

  By ljd42 on November 16, 2020

  

  Even without actually doing anything, I’m exhausted just from watching this four-minute video! This is definitely not the life of a typical college freshman as portrayed in the media. So the question remains: how many freshmen — excuse me, “first-years” — are… Read More ›

• Grey elections

  By ljd42 on November 15, 2020

  

  Who cares about the mathematics of elections? We all should, of course — especially now. An informative, even entertaining way to learn about this topic is to watch the videos of CGP Grey. For a scary example, take a look… Read More ›

• A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen

  By ljd42 on November 14, 2020

  

  What did Alex Trebek and Leonard Cohen have in common? “Both were Canadians,” you reply. “Both were beloved by huge audiences,” you add. Yes, of course. And both get the title of Rabbi, according to Mark Oppenheimer, cohost of the… Read More ›

• What I’ve learned in the past hour

  By ljd42 on November 12, 2020

  

  I just learned (a bit) about the Zettelkasten Method! You probably already know about it, but I had never heard of it. Basically it’s hypertext without needing computers — just notecards and paperclips, though software is certainly allowed. In an… Read More ›

• Not possible! What are emojis doing in 1807?

  By ljd42 on November 11, 2020

  

  How much of this advertisement (from 1807!) can you figure out? Note that it says “hieroglyphical” where we would have said “rebus” when I was a kid or “emojis” today. You’ll probably do much better at reading it than I… Read More ›

• How have I forgotten this number system?

  By ljd42 on November 9, 2020

  

  That’s easy. I couldn’t have forgotten it, as I had never known about it in the first place! We’re talking about the Cistercian number system. Sounds monkish, doesn’t it? Yes, that’s what it is; it was developed by Cistercian monks… Read More ›

• Really? You’re saying Ranked Choice Voting is too hard for adults in Massachusetts?

  By ljd42 on November 8, 2020

  

  My former Quantitative Reasoning (QR) students know that Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is superior to First Past the Post (FPTP), the system we use in Massachusetts for most elections. So why did Massachusetts adults vote it down by a convincing… Read More ›

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