Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 42

• Is it fantasy? Or is it science fiction? Some ruminations.

  By ljd42 on September 26, 2020

  

  Do we care about labeling a literary genre? What difference does it make? Ever since I was a pre-teen, I was interested in science fiction. Fantasy, not so much. But what’s the difference? And who cares? First of all, just… Read More ›

• Is translation even possible?

  By ljd42 on September 25, 2020

  

  “What a silly question!” you reply. “We translate sentences in high-school language classes all the time!” Do you? You might not do that at all (perhaps you took a total immersion class) but let that pass. You probably did at… Read More ›

• If 2020 hasn’t been depressing enough…

  By ljd42 on September 23, 2020

  

  Just in case the year 2020 hasn’t been depressing enough, I was appalled to read today that 13% of millennials in Massachusetts believe that Jews caused the Holocaust. Other related statistics from the study by Schoen Cooperman Research are just… Read More ›

• Popularizers IV: Douglas Hofstadter

  By ljd42 on September 22, 2020

  

  Gödel, Escher, Bach — what more do I need to say? Quite a bit more, you reply, especially since only 8% of you have actually read this amazing book. (Statistics gladly invented on the spot, of course.) If you’ve heard of… Read More ›

• “Even Racists Got the Blues”

  By ljd42 on September 20, 2020

  

  Let’s assume that you neither speak nor read Irish. (Probably a safe guess.) I, too, neither speak nor read Irish. But work with me here. Study this image, which shows an American wearing a custom tee shirt. Without knowing any Irish,… Read More ›

• There is still hope.

  By ljd42 on September 19, 2020

  

  Apparently many people think that the number of Supreme Court justices is immutable, that the Constitution specifies that there must be nine. This is not true. If you think that nine is a magic number written into the Constitution, you… Read More ›

• My slightly updated ethnicity

  By ljd42 on September 18, 2020

  

  Donald Trump doesn’t understand that science is not a fixed body of known facts. It changes all the time — whenever new data and new tools result in new information and therefore new knowledge. That’s why Fauci (et al.) used… Read More ›

• Sometimes Zippy actually makes sense.

  By ljd42 on September 17, 2020

  

   

• More about teaching remotely

  By ljd42 on September 16, 2020

  

  Some schools are back to 100% in-person learning at this point, but most are starting with either hybrid (apparently called “blended” in NYC) or all-remote. As I am (thankfully) mostly retired, do I still have skin in the game? Well,… Read More ›

• Greek! (The Ingenious Language)

  By ljd42 on September 14, 2020

  Where do I begin when I try to describe this marvelous book? If you look at the cover (see image at the bottom of this post), you’ll see that the full title of this book is The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic… Read More ›

• Greek! (The Ingenious Language)

  By ljd42 on September 14, 2020

  

  Where do I begin when I try to describe this marvelous book? If you look at the cover (see image at the bottom of this post), you’ll see that the full title of this book is The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic… Read More ›

• Semper Augustus, a short novel

  By ljd42 on September 12, 2020

  

  A short novel? Maybe it’s a long novella. In any case, it’s well worth reading. This dystopian work by the well-known science fiction author Nancy Kress is set in the near future, and I do mean “near.” The wealth gap… Read More ›

• A math problem for the season

  By ljd42 on September 11, 2020

  

  From this week’s issue of The New Yorker:  

• Pawliamentary immunity

  By ljd42 on September 10, 2020

  

  Yay! News out of Israel that’s about cooperation, not conflict. According to YNet, Israel’s major English-language news source, the 30 stray cats who hang out in the backyard of the Knesset have started entering the building, with the response that…… Read More ›

• Can’t have too much Tavolo!

  By ljd42 on September 9, 2020

  

  Excellent dinner on the patio at Tavolo last night, all supported by server extraordinaire Michaela Collins. Barbara started with an enormous Chef’s Burrata (burrata, mixed greens, candied walnuts, gala apples, vincotto, evoo) accompanied by a Summer Lemonade cocktail (it is… Read More ›

• Popularizers III: George Gamow

  By ljd42 on September 8, 2020

  

  What? Why was I reading without my eyeglasses? That’s easy. This photo, my semi-official portrait at age 11, was taken just before I got glasses. And that was all because of a substitute teacher! My regular teacher always had always… Read More ›

• A Cat

  By ljd42 on September 6, 2020

  

  Why had I never heard of this book before? Well, at least I’m not alone. A Cat is a little-known 1995 work written by Leonard Michaels and illustrated by Frances Lerner. I read the 2018 Tin House hardcover version, which I… Read More ›

• Hebrew Script Hacking

  By ljd42 on September 4, 2020

  

  How is this book different from all other books in the series? I’m referring to Teach Yourself Library’s Script Hacking series, which teaches you several alphabetical writing systems — a limited objective, and the series does a good job with it. Little… Read More ›

• Is this box small enough for you?

  By ljd42 on September 2, 2020

  

  William says “Where I fits, I sits.” But does he fit?

• Facts, truth, math, and Donald Trump

  By ljd42 on September 1, 2020

  

  Given Donald Trump’s uneasy relationship with facts (and a few other flaws), we all wonder how he has managed to maintain rock-steady approval from about 40% of Americans for the past four years. I was unwillingly forced to think about… Read More ›

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