New Yorker has an article on psychological studies about kids and patience

"psychologists have focussed on raw intelligence as the most important variable when it comes to predicting success in life. Mischel argues that intelligence is largely at the mercy of self-control"

New Yorker has an article on psychological studies about kids and patience. How delayed gratification (teaching patience strategies) correlate with success in life for kids. This is probably pretty obvious to most of us. But, now psychological studies are showing how important Patience is (not as willpower, but practices of strategies).

Secret: out of sight, out of mind, and having focusing techniques, and being able to distance from sensory input. Reminds me of Chan meditation and other Buddhist practices. Implications for western education?

(This is a rush, breaking post. Apologies for any mistakes. Clean up with be done later.)

link

Funding to the Sciences and Technology is off to an amazing start

Wow, I went over the transcript of Obama's talk to the National Academy of Science, and I'm blown away. I'm actually surprised this is not bigger news.

I'm really excited about all the massive increase of money going into the Sciences. The budgets of National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institue of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Department of Energy's Department's Office of Science are all doubled.

American Universities have top notch Scientific research and attract the best talents in the world because of their abilities to provide opportunities for researchers to work. More often than not, all this concentration of talents create a network effect that spawn technologies or companies which indirectly or directly benefit Americans. This ensures that we continue to do that....

In addition, Obama created a new program for energy called Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, or ARPA-E, based on the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). As a guy who worked on AI stuff for DARPA, yeah, they fund pretty wacky stuff (like da internet). But, crazy, far-out projects is exactly what the energy sector needs....

So, my hats off to John Holdren, the Science Advisor and Obama's other advisors. They done their country a great service!

Concerning Mathematicians and Soothsayers and Kindred Evildoers

The study and teaching of the science of geometry are in the public interest, but whosoever practices the damnable art of mathematical divination, shall be put to the stake.

Corpus Juris Civilis, Codex Justinianus,
Book IX, XVIII, 2, 3 (AD circa 650)

Taken from Jan Gullberg's wonderful Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers.

The Dismal Science was much more dismal back then (tongue firmly planted in cheek).... ;)