Ever use that algebra and calculus you learned in high school? Most people don’t, I’ll bet. But every day we make decisions or encounter information involving odds and numerical evidence. Play poker? Buy a lottery ticket? Decide to fly or drive? Read a story about how married people live longer? Or how a drug cuts the risk of a rare Read More …
We have days for honoring military heroes, but why not a holiday to honor other people who risked their lives to protect and save their fellow man? Police. Fire fighters. Transplant donors. Rescuers from accidents and disasters. Extend gratitude to doctors, teachers, parents, too. If as a society we’re not going to pay these people as well Read More …
Two-person TV show. No, two-person showdown. Total knockdown debating, intellectually at a very high level, but “fighters” wear boxing gloves and dance around a ring, landing verbal jabs. It’s a play, it’s philosophy! Every week a new profound, always relevant topic. Could be a play, actually.
Lots of American adults need more education. Could a kind of home schooling be an answer? Grants or government funding could set up a service or registry that would help students form groups taught by volunteers or family members. Perhaps parents who home-school high schoolers could invite an adult or two into their sessions, maybe Read More …
Elementary schools don’t really teach science, which is a system of thinking, not a set of facts. Suppose, for example, in kindergarten, a running endeavor is to list observations about water: It’s wet. It’s sticky. It freezes. It flows. Ice floats. Snow has little crystals. Steam is hot. It forms drops. It splashes. Fog is Read More …
Or would it be a Wikisaurus? Ever use a Roget’s thesaurus? It’s fine if you want fine language and literary reference. Look up enormous and you’ll find colossal, immense and Brobdinagian. But you’ll find few fun, pop culture options, no gigundo, no Burger King ginormous. It’d be great if folks could add their own suggestions, Read More …