Science: In my thirty-four years in medicine, I can count the number of really big disappointments on one hand:
- Type 1 diabetes and the failure of researchers to solve this problem;
- a cure for sickle cell disease; and,
- "a cure for cancer."
Of the three, the first two seemed solvable but so far, not much advancement. But now, in The WSJ, reports that there my be "real" cures for sickle cell disease. I'm going to have to go back and review Crisper gene editing.
******************************
Ornithology
Birds: I can hardly wait. I ordered a brand new copy of a 2013 biography of Alexander Wilson, the father of American ornithology. It should arrive Monday. I treasure my hardcover of an earlier biography of Alexander Wilson but looked forward to a new study.
*****************************
A Christmas Story
Sophia: Perhaps my favorite Christmas movie -- no surprise -- is A Christmas Story. Somehow Sophia found it on cable television on "her" iPad tonight. I have no idea how she found it and I can't find it on the big 27-inch iMac. So, I'm watching The Maltese Falcon on TCM followed by The Thin Man. Wow, what a great country.
By the way, if you have cable television, and good wi-fi, you absolutely have to have the largest, newest Apple iPad available. It's impossible to articulate how incredible the experience is.
On another note, if I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times: Spectrum cable television is very expensive and I've tried ways to cut the cord and/or cut the cost, but it's impossible. But, if one takes advantage of what Spectrum has to offer, it's really worth the monthly subscription.
******************************
More Proof That The Pandemic Will Widen The Gap
Between The Haves and the Have-Nots
In August, I reported here on how Montgomery County, Maryland, was seeking to shut down private schools as part of their Covid-19 strategy of abolishing all risk by abolishing all freedom.
As more individuals have recently tested positive for Covid, the county government is responding with a new array of iron-fisted decrees. Some of the latest edicts make little or no sense, confirming the county’s nickname of LoCo Moco.
Gov. Larry Hogan blocked the county government’s effort to criminalize private teaching; Catholic, Jewish, and other schools have operated safely with no significant Covid outbreaks. But county schools remain shut down in large part due to the clout of the teachers union, a bulwark of political support for County Executive Marc Elrich.
Since the county padlocked public schools earlier this year and shifted to unreliable “distance learning,” there has been a 500%+ increase in the number of black junior high students failing mathematics and a 600%+ increase in Hispanic students failing.
The percentage of black elementary school students failing English increased more than 350% and the percentage of Hispanic students failing increased more than 500%.
These numbers were revealed during a County Board of Education meeting on December 3; a local activist captured screenshots of the disastrous test results. Some of the data was also reported in yesterday’s Washington Post. Shutting down public schools has done more harm to black students than anything since the end of local school segregation in 1961.
Black lives matter.
I don't even know how one quantifies a 500% increase and a 600% increase.
A 100% increase is a doubling.
200% would be another doubling, I suppose.
I give up. From wiki:
An increase of 100% in a quantity means that the final amount is 200% of the initial amount (100% of initial + 100% of increase = 200% of initial). In other words, the quantity has doubled. An increase of 800% means the final amount is 9 times the original (100% + 800% = 900% = 9 times as large).
So, I guess, a 600% increase means the number of students failing mathematics in this study is 7x as large.
If 5 students out of a 1,000 students fail, then only 35 students are failing. That put things in perspective. From 5/1000 = 0.5% to 35/1000 or 3.5%.
Working backwards, 35 students, now divided by 5 = 7. So, subtract one from seven, get 6, add two zeros and put a "%" sign behind that.
Check: if ten students are failing now and originally there were five students failing, then 10/5 = 2. Subtracting 1 from 2 gets you 1. Add two zeros, and voila -- a 100% increase. And that checks.
LOL. Pretty funny and pretty sad at the same time. I went over this with our 17-year-old granddaughter and she explained it to me in even simpler terms.
ReplyDelete