By Melanie Moran/Vanderbilt University
and World Science staff
People called âweirdâ by their peers may have a leg up in life, at least in one respect.
Researchers have found that a quirky or socially awkward approach to life, often considered a hindrance, may be a key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor.
The researchers studied people with âschizotypalâ personalitiesâwho act oddly, but arenât mentally illâand found theyâre more creative than either normal or fully schizophrenic people. To access their creativity, these people rely heavily on the right sides of their brains.
The work, by psychologists Brad Folley and Sohee Park of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., was published online last week by the journal Schizophrenia Research.
Psychologists believe a number of creative luminaries had schizotypal personalities, including Vincent Van Gogh, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Isaac Newton.
âThe idea that schizotypes have enhanced creativity has been out there for a long time,â but no one has studied how their brains work, Folley said. He and Park conducted two tests to compare the creative thinking processes of schizotypes, schizophrenics and ânormalâ people.
In the first test, participants were shown pictures of various household objects and asked to make up new functions for them. Schizotypes were found to be most creative in suggesting new uses. Schizophrenics and average subjects performed similarly to one another.
Schizophrenia has also often been linked to creativity, but many schizophrenics have disorganized thoughts âalmost to the point where they canât really be creative because they cannot get all of their thoughts coherent enough to do that,â Folley said.
âSchizotypes, on the other hand, are free from the severe, debilitating symptoms surrounding schizophrenia and also have an enhanced creative ability.â
In the second test, the three groups again were asked to identify new uses for everyday objects, as well as to perform a non-creative task, for comparison. During all tasks, their brain activity was monitored using a brain scanning technique called near-infrared optical spectroscopy.
The results showed all groups used both sides of the brain for creative tasks. But activation of the right sides of the schizotype brains was dramatically greater than that of the schizophrenic and average subjects.
âIn the scientific community, the popular idea that creativity exists in the right side of the brain is thought to be ridiculous,â since both halves of the brain are needed to make new associations and perform other creative tasks, Folley said.
But he found something slightly different.
âAll three groups, schizotypes, schizophrenics and normal controls, did use both hemispheres when performing creative tasks. But the brain scans of the schizotypes showed a hugely increased activation of the right hemisphere compared to the schizophrenics and the normal controls.â
The researchers said the results suggest schizotypes and other psychoses-prone populations draw on the left and right sides of their brains differently than the average population. This use of the brain for a variety of tasks may be related to enhanced creativity.
Folley cited work by Swiss neuroscientist Peter Brugger, who found that the left side of the brain controls everyday associations, such as recognizing the car key on your keychain, and verbal abilities; whereas the right side controls new associations, such as finding a new use for a object or navigating a new place.
Brugger speculated that schizotypes should make new associations faster because they are better at accessing both sides of the brain â a prediction verified in a subsequent study, Folley said.
The theory, Folley added, can also explain research showing that a disproportional number of schizotypes and schizophrenics are neither right- nor left-handed. They instead use both hands for a variety of tasks, suggesting that they recruit both sides of their brains for an array of tasks, more than the average person.
âThe lack of specialization for certain tasks in brain hemispheres [halves] could be seen as a liability, but the increased communication between the hemispheres actually could provide added creativity,â Folley said.
Posted by: .speshul guy ||
09/18/2005 12:07 Comments ||
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#3
When my father was a boy in school, he stood out by exhibiting intelligence. Today he would be called "schizotypal", not because he was different or unusual from the students of today, but because he was not like his mostly stupid, and some very stupid, peers back then. What was abnormal back then is far more normal today.
So what is "creativity"? That is, a lot of the current system of education, with roots going back to the middle ages, is designed to supress creativity in favor of uniformity, or uniform mediocrity. Its modern mirror image, used in some "progressive" schools, tries to "force" creativity without any foundation in learned skills. It does little good to paint magnificant paintings in your head if you have never touched brush to canvas.
The solution to this problem is to change how children are educated. Basic learned skills and low level skills, like memorization, should be taught on a self-paced multimedia computer.
By having teaching, evaluation, and review for each student at their own pace, weeks or months could be saved, and content could be multiplied by perhaps five times current curriculum. Subjects could even be taught in tandem, such as teaching a foreign language at the same time as typing and history.
Human teachers would still be needed to optimize student learning of higher skills, such as evaluation, subjectivity, discrimination, analysis, and synthesis. And this is where "learned creativity" comes into play. Before the student is asked to create, they are given a foundation of how to create, models and examples of other peoples' creativity, and ways of describing or explaining what has been created.
#4
#3: When my father was a boy in school, he stood out by exhibiting intelligence. Today he would be called "schizotypal",
Hey, I resemble that remark (Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck,)
Seriously the "Skool" couldnt figure out if I was a moron or Genius, so I got tested, whadya know, a 141 IQ, That answered that question, it was the Skool, not the pupil.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/18/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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#5
it was the Skool, not the pupil.
Wrong, genius. You still don't understand how skools work. The teacher's always right. Don't bother to bring the facts into it. They just confuse things.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/18/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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#6
Been there too Mrs. D?
Sounds like the voice of experience, yep nothing changed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/18/2005 13:57 Comments ||
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#7
yep nothing changed.
Well, not exactly true.
As soon as possible (16) I took the GED test, passed, and got out of there.
Went to our local Vocational School, did very nicely (Consider it a jump of three grades) and never looked back.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/18/2005 14:09 Comments ||
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#8
That is what I call the "gravest offense" of a school: wasting a student's time. Especially in the elementary grades, students should have available to them the maximum possible learning density.
For example, in the lowest grades, students should be trained for "3D memorization", so that they will be able to take vast amounts of data and memorize it relationally, not just as uncollated linear information to be haphazardly organized in their heads later, if ever. And memorization is the lowest form of education. Other levels of learning should also be intensified. Students should be able to (brutally) analyze in their early years and intellectually discriminate between good and poor data. Planning, organizing, optimizing, the scientific method, decision making, etc., all should be instilled as tools the students should have ready access to the rest of their lives.
Take an "optimized" block of instruction. Say, a 4th grader learning about the first Moon landing. He sees and hears a multimedia presentation, that is interactive with him. It is presented in both English and German, to teach him German at the same time. The program stops periodically and asks him questions in several formats, and not all focused on just history. It may quiz him on word usage, technical data, ask him to speculate, or otherwise challenge him based on his previous responses. Then, he may follow linked paths in the main body for additional information far beyond his grade level, even as advanced as college level. This is so students can deeply digress from their main study when they really find a topic that interests them.
These digressions are also "for credit". This recognizes that students learn in fits and starts, and as long as they manage the basic lesson, with stimulation and motivation provided by the computer, they should be free to go as far as they can when they are on a roll. It also cuts them slack for a while when they are in a slump in some topic. The student should know where he stands on each and every subject.
These multimedia blocks could be selected ahead of time to emphasize what the parents think is important. For example, parents who want their kids to have a more-intense exposure to science would get blocks that continually reference the math and science aspects of what is being taught.
Blocks could be available for download to school districts, and students could have personal data and curriculum thumbdrives, so they could move from school to school and not lose a day in continuity.
Teachers would be just as busy, but at a far higher level of performance. As a class, they would no longer be "blue collar" in unions, but "white collar" in professional organizations.
They would have to be trained in recognizing and dealing with all sorts of problems that inhibit student performance, such as dyslexia and other sensory problems, medical and nutritional problems, and personal problems. Students would have to have thorough medical entrance exams each year.
Teachers would also have to perform subjective evaluations, explain paradoxes, and instruct controversial subjects the old fashioned way.
#9
I'm not buying it. While Muammar Khaddafi and Kim Jong-Il take win and place at the Wierd Olympics, Saddam has written more novels than both combined.
#10
I very much support the idea of abolishing "grades", per se, as anything more than a social grouping - and mainly because emotional levels do adhere more closely to age.
We had the SRI block instruction modules - only in the vocabulary and reading comprehension areas - introduced when I was in the 3rd grade in my little suburban Texas school. They were a hoot - "learn" at your own pace, although it did not feel like learning - it felt like being given the keys to the library. Zipping through the program also earned you bennies, such as being offered inclusion in other programs of "advanced" instruction. For example, I was offered a chance to take a block on math that was a real killer for most: the binary and octal number systems. They did not cover hex, unfortunately, but for the 4th grade it was really something. I loved every minute of it - and ended up a programmer, lol, go figure.
If all topics were modularized and self-teach at your own speed - with no limits to how far you could go in a particular subject area - it would be a stupendous boost, IMHO. Of course, way the hell back then, we had teachers who were extremely competent in their area... I'm not certain the same can be said today, given my experiences as a parent. Low pay cripples the profession and leads to mediocrity, I'm afraid.
I had the good fortune to jump a grade, as did my daughter. There were trade-offs - but those were entirely social - ostracism and jealousy. If the social aspects were separated from the educational aspects, as I mentioned above, individual progress would be dramatically altered - for the better.
I also agree 100% that learning occurs in fits and starts. I don't recall it, as such, but saw it clearly as a parent. So many biological changes occurring during the schooling age period that it's remarkable how many can concentrate, lol. On the classroom topics, I mean, heh. Gorgeous teachers in tight pink sweaters were, well, something of a distraction...
It would be a massive undertaking to create the system for all topics. It would be even more problematic to gain adoption by any but private schools, I'd wager. The NEA, currently completely infiltrated by idiotarians and self-serving cretins, would never allow it in the public system, unless they could see some means of controlling the content - which would probably doom the entire idea, given their political advocacy and dumb-down activism. Sad. Huge potential wasted for the usual reasons, the politics of personal gain.
Still, a great topic. One would presume we were all there, more or less - lol, so the idea pool should be huge.
It is a dangerous thing, since you get flamed if the width blows the RB formatting or the size makes it too slow for those on garden hose connections. But linky-links always be fine... Such as this totally gratuitous image posing as social commentary: look very carefully
I'd no more buy art such as a drawing by a person acting weird than if that person could name the top 5 NCAA football teams last week by drawing it in beer stained pics in crayon of the last game he saw before he passed out Saturday.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/18/2005 18:15 Comments ||
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#15
I went to school from 1952 through 1964 in a "rural" Louisiana school that, until the year after we graduated, included children of all 12 grades (no kindergarten). The school principal believed in "segregating" groups by their performance, although as far as I know, no one was ever prevented from asking for a class they wanted to take, regardless of past performance.
We had some outstanding teachers, and a bunch of klutzes. We also had some teachers that had been "dismissed" from other schools for various reasons. Our principal was a very forgiving type of person, which is why we ended up with a deaf band instructor - who had once been the director of the Philadelphia Philharmonic - and a music director who was once a show-girl (and who won the State music awards so regularly they ended up naming them after her).
I never did well in school - "B"s and "C"s, mostly. My parents bought the American People's Encyclopedia when I started first grade. I became interested in it about 1956, and read the entire 20 volumes before I graduated from high school. I was tolerated by all the "groups" in school, but never truly belonged to any of them. Being among the poorest of the school's students didn't help.
My graduating class of 133 students sent 46 to college on full scholarships, and 84 have at least a Bachelor's degree today. And yes, we were ALL a bit 'weird'! Most of us still are...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/18/2005 18:33 Comments ||
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PD: I wonder whatever happened to SRI. I still remember a lot of those modules. "I'm on red." "That's nothing. I'm on blue-green." I think the problem was that a lot of the teachers were just using them to sham, instead of to teach. Hex! I dont't think that there was a processor or a bus wider than 8 bits when you were in school. ;-)
The Danish government is under attack for paying for its disabled citizens to have sex with prostitutes.
"I'm from the government. I'm here to..."
"Yowza!"
The official 'Sex, irrespective of disability' campaign pays sex workers to provide sex once a month for disabled people. The legal guidelines advise: "It could be of great importance that the carer speaks to the prostitute together with the person in their care, to help them express their wishes."
"Ummm... I think I can guess what he wants! Put that thing away before you hurt somebody!"
But opposition parties have attacked the regulations, claiming it is an immoral way of spending tax-payers' money. Social-Democrat spokesperson Kristen Brosboel said: "We spend a large proportion of our taxes rescuing women from prostitution. But at the same time we officially encourage carers to help contact with prostitutes."
Does seem kinda stoopid, doesn't it?
If you make the assumption that all hookers want to be rescued from their profession...
But Stig Langvad of the country's Disabled Association said the politicians critical of the plan are showing "double standards".
"Yeah! Youse get laid! Why can't we?"
He said: "The disabled must have the same possibilities as other people. Politicians can debate whether prostitution should be allowed in general, instead of preventing only the disabled from having access to it."
That makes no sense, but I'm not a y'urp-peon.
Somehow, the idea of having a government low-bid hooker stop by to attend to my needs according to the provisions Paragraph 11, Subparagraph 4 and in accordance with Sex Manual 41-2005 doesn't really excite me that much. But to each his own...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Somehow, the idea of having a government low-bid hooker stop by to attend to my needs according to the provisions Paragraph 11, Subparagraph 4 and in accordance with Sex Manual 41-2005 doesn't really excite me that much. But to each his own...
Addendum: Danish Secretary 5.01 2005 is absoulutly freaky now.
#2
Somehow, the idea of having a government low-bid hooker stop by to attend to my needs according to the provisions Paragraph 11, Subparagraph 4 and in accordance with Sex Manual 41-2005 doesn't really excite me that much. A Rantburg classic.
#7
A hidden part of this is that in that part of Europe, prostitutes sometimes double as social workers. Actually not a bad idea, as a lot of the men seeing prostitutes *need* social worker advice and assistance.
Remember also that the US is way ahead of Europe in providing mandatory disabled access to most businesses. So being disabled means that you are pretty much a homebody.
The continuing story of the Asiri girl sentenced to death for killing the man who attempted to rape her took a new twist recently when Crown Prince Sultan, minister of defense and aviation, personally intervened, Arab News has learned. Waleed Abumilha, webmaster of the site (www.freethegirl.com) that was set up to gain public support for the girl, confirmed that the crown prince had personally paid a visit to the dead manâs family in order to ask them to forgive the girl. Abumilha dismissed recent media reports that the date for the girlâs execution was near. He said: âBased on what I know, what has been reported in the media is untrue. However, the crown princeâs visit to the dead manâs family is a fact and it is dominating the local scene.â Some observers believe the girl may be released under a wide-ranging royal amnesty often given in Ramadan by the king.
The story began six years ago when the woman â 20 years old and married at the time â became involved with a Saudi man. They saw each other several times and finally the man demanded sex, threatening to kill her if she refused. She refused. He then attempted to rape her and she killed him. She confessed to the police and told the story to the religious court, making very clear the motives behind the killing. The religious court, however, ruled that under Shariah law, she should be executed, regardless of the motives or circumstances.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Tony Blair has denounced the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina as 'full of hatred of America' and 'gloating' at the country's plight, it was reported yesterday. Blair allegedly made the remarks privately to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, which owns the rival Sky News.
The comments threatened a new rift between the government and the BBC following the Andrew Gilligan affair over events leading to the Iraq war and recent criticisms of ministers Today presenter John Humphrys, which were controversially leaked to the press. Downing Street said last night it had no comment on the report in the Financial Times. The BBC said that its coverage had been 'committed solely to relaying the events fully, accurately and impartially'.
Murdoch, a long-standing critic of the BBC, was addressing the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York. Chuckling, he said: 'I probably shouldn't be telling you this' before recounting a recent conversation with Blair. He said the Prime Minister was in New Delhi when he criticised BBC coverage of the catastrophe in New Orleans: 'He said it was just full of hatred of America and gloating at our troubles.'
Bill Clinton, the former US President who was hosting the conference, also attacked the tone of the BBC coverage at a seminar on the media. He said it had been 'stacked up' to criticise the federal government's slow response. Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony Corporation and a former head of CBS News, said he had been 'nervous about the slight level of gloating' by the corporation.
The disapproval will come as a blow to BBC executives, who had declared themselves delighted with the hurricane coverage, led by Matt Frei. They believed they had learnt the lessons from the Boxing Day tsunami in Asia, when the BBC was regarded as being slow off the mark.
A spokesman for the BBC said last night: 'We have received no complaint from Downing Street, so it would be remiss of us to comment on what is reported as a private conversation.'
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2005 01:09 ||
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Chavez said the Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who sat with him at the church, had advised him "not to be provoked" by representatives of the U.S. government.
I'm just having a hard time reading things tonight. Was Serrano provoking him? I suppose it could have been Jackson, but he is not an "official" representative of the US government. Were other congressmen there? I'm confused.
#2
To the best of my knowledge nobody paid any real attention to El Gordo. Pat Robertson holds no off office. Condoleeza Rice paid minimal attention to him.
#3
Chavez doesn't need the US. He's in the process of turning Venzuela into Paradise On Earth based upon the economic principles of Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, and Kim Sung Il.
#4
I note (With supressed glee) that many Dictators "Go Abroad" and cannot return because while they were gone their Government changed hands.
I can only hope the pattern repeats itself.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/18/2005 13:54 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Helen Clark courted coalition partners Sunday after narrowly winning an election that featured a rival bid to strip special rights from indigenous Maori and dismantle nuclear-free laws in favor of stronger U.S. trade ties. Clark's ruling Labour Party won 50 seats in the 122-seat parliament, forcing her to form a coalition government. The main opposition National Party's was close behind with 49 seats in the poll Saturday. The 55-year-old Clark will become the first Labour leader since World War II to win three terms if she can agree to deals with small parties to support her in government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
The situation is somewhat murky as to whether she can arrange a coalition that exceeds 50% see this ABC article.
Posted by: DanNY ||
09/18/2005 5:38 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US president
Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for the
Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.
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Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction."
The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Bush said in an interview with an ABC's "This Week" programme.
Clinton said there had been a "heroic but so far unsuccessful" effort to put together an constitution that would be universally supported in Iraq. {More at link, if you really care}
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/18/2005 16:03 ||
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#1
I believe that headline should be "Clinton Chides Current Chief", right?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/18/2005 18:30 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder how Clinton feels that by ignoring islamic terrorism for the seven years after the first World Trade Center bombing, he set up the current war we are in?
Posted by: ed ||
09/18/2005 18:59 Comments ||
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#4
Ed, I doubt Clinton ever spends a moment's thought on that.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/18/2005 19:02 Comments ||
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#5
RC - I doubt Clintoon ever spends a moment's thought on anything, except for Mr. Winky, and for how he can fool/blackmail people into forgetting/covering up his actual "legacy" and believing the fictional one he and his buddies are pushing.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/18/2005 19:44 Comments ||
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#6
Not true, Barb.
He also thinks about getting back into the White House with Hillary, I would wager.
#11
...Bush Administration had.... no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction. Sure they did. Bill Clinton said so on December 16,1998. PRESIDENT CLINTON: Good evening. Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the United States, and indeed the interests of people throughout the Middle East and around the world. Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons. When did you chaange your mind Billy?
The oldest known Buffalo Soldier, Mark Mathews, has died at the age of 111.
Mathews joined the legendary black cavalry unit in 1910 when he was 16. He served under Gen. John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing in the pursuit of Pancho Villa.
He also had a long career as a security guard at the National Institutes of Health.
The name Buffalo Soldiers was given to troops of the all-black 9th and 10th cavalry by their enemies in the Indian wars of the late 1800's. The name may have come from a couple things. Either Indians thought the soldiers' hair resembled a buffalo's mane, or the Indians respected the soldiers for their courage and fearlessness, qualities they found in the buffalo.
More than 20 Buffalo Soldiers went on to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor. No other unit has won more.
Matthews later served in the South Pacific during World War II. CNN reports he will be buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery
Posted by: john ||
09/18/2005 12:21 ||
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If they vote to confirm the Koz crowd, Move-On, NARAL, etc. will be furious. If they don't vote to confirm, they will be admitting they are not responsible to ever govern again.
On the other hand, Roberts did endorse the absurd doctrine of 'the constitution provides a right to privacy'.
#3
No, it's part of a subtle plan to cause conservatives to have second thoughts. The next step is for Cindy Sheehan to announce that "The Bush admin is trying to control her mind with satellites ... and that she supports John Roberts".
#4
No, it's because the WaPo isn't as liberal as some of you seem to think (they were totally on board with Reagan's overt Central American foreign policy, including the Contras, in the '80's, for example) and because, although they are to the left of this administration, they don't think any other Bush appointee would be "better" from their standpoint than Roberts.
I didn't much like his statement that the Commerce clause allows the USG to regulate anything it damn well pleases. I'm not sure small-government conservatism exists as anything other than a fringe movement in this country anymore.
The Colorado judge presiding over the case against Homaidan Al-Turki has refused to drop charges against the 36-year-old linguistics student. Al-Turki is accused by his former Indonesian Nanny of being held against her will and being sexually abused. According to sources, District Judge Marylin Leonard made her decision to continue considering the case and not to drop any of Al-Turki's charges after hearing testimony from the prosecution. Local authorities had released Al-Turki on a 50 thousand dollar bond, but had placed the accused under house arrest until the end of his trial.
Lawyers for Al-Turki are planning to file a motion to transfer the case to another judge, claiming Judge Leonard was acting on government pressure not to drop the charges against Al-Turki. According to a local Colorado Newspaper, "Both Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 36, face federal charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant. They are accused of underpaying the woman for her services. Al-Turki and his wife are scheduled to be arraigned in November, but lawyers have said that Khonaizan may be working on a plea deal with the prosecution. Lawyer Richilano said Al-Turki would plead not guilty. Al-Turki, a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Colorado, brought his wife, five children and the nanny to Colorado in 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2005 00:00 ||
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...A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.
What's more, his simple new framework means calculations can be done without trigonometric tables or calculators, yet often with greater accuracy...
Dr Wildberger has replaced traditional ideas of angles and distance with new concepts called "spread" and "quadrance".
These new concepts mean that trigonometric problems can be done with algebra," says Wildberger, an associate professor of mathematics at UNSW.
"Rational trigonometry replaces sines, cosines, tangents and a host of other trigonometric functions with elementary arithmetic."
"For the past two thousand years we have relied on the false assumptions that distance is the best way to measure the separation of two points, and that angle is the best way to measure the separation of two lines.
"So teachers have resigned themselves to teaching students about circles and pi and complicated trigonometric functions that relate circular arc lengths to x and y projections â all in order to analyse triangles. No wonder students are left scratching their heads," he says.
"But with no alternative to the classical framework, each year millions of students memorise the formulas, pass or fail the tests, and then promptly forget the unpleasant experience.
"And we mathematicians wonder why so many people view our beautiful subject with distaste bordering on hostility.
"Now there is a better way. Once you learn the five main rules of rational trigonometry and how to simply apply them, you realise that classical trigonometry represents a misunderstanding of geometry."
#2
I'm not a mathemetician but I'm fairly intelligent layman (I did minor in math lo these many years ago).
My first response, after incredulity wore off, is what does this mean for all those branches of physics that have to do with trig? If I remember correctly there are sines and cosines and secants etc. all over the place in particle physics and astrophysics.
#4
I can't get at the reference the article points to, so I've no clear idea what he's talking about. But the trig functions are so central (and so easy) that I don't see them being replaced. I wonder what he wants to replace exp(ix) with? (BTW, nobody I know uses secant/cosecant etc, just ratios of sine and cosine. Too hard to remember all those names.)
Posted by: James ||
09/18/2005 17:14 Comments ||
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#5
sines, cosines, etc are only a measure of ratios between sides on X-Y axes. I fail to see how it could be made easier....guess the accuracy could be dumbed down to 45 degrees then you'd almost always be able to guess....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/18/2005 17:36 Comments ||
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#6
Trigonometry is not only about distances and angles. It's useful in modelling repetitive, or periodic phenomena. It's also useful for integration (calculus, trig substitutions).
Well, let's wait and see. Quaternions ceded to vectors, maybe this is something similar.
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/18/2005 18:05 Comments ||
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#7
SOHCAHTOA, baby. Once you have that, you've got it all.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/18/2005 18:12 Comments ||
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#8
well, I was trying not to get too into it....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/18/2005 18:19 Comments ||
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Published by "Wild Egg" hm, Wildberger + nest egg?
$80 to find out. The wikipedia article presents a trivial reformulation, but I'd have to see the book. The traditional trigonometry presentation leads to circular functions and they in turn provide an entry to complex numbers. These fields are just as important to modern math as the mensuration of triangles.
#10
"For the past two thousand years we have relied on the false assumptions that distance is the best way to measure the separation of two points, and that angle is the best way to measure the separation of two lines.
#11
"For the past two thousand years we have relied on the false assumptions that distance is the best way to measure the separation of two points, and that angle is the best way to measure the separation of two lines.
sheech! obviously a tape measure is...iffin you don't have an experienced eye.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/18/2005 18:52 Comments ||
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#12
Ima hafta go readup on this new math before I buy into it---mathematical equivalent of cold fusion, LOL!
But if we have no sines and cosines, how will we do a Fourier series? Repeating waveforms, and all?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/18/2005 19:01 Comments ||
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#13
It sounds like some simpified rules and rote rules such that will allow you to work with triangles, but are totally worthless for all the other uses of trigonometry. Useful for paving stone layers and dress pattern makers, and that's all.
#16
I finally got to his Chapter 1, and you're right, Darrell: simplicity isn't the first thing that comes to mind. And the theory seems a bit sterile, though it might have some links to number theory via pythagorean triples. And the whining about "traditional theory" is generally the sign of the crank.
Posted by: James ||
09/18/2005 21:31 Comments ||
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#17
Trig isn't that difficult, it is a high school level subject that you use for the rest of your life. This would really have to be something special to make me even the least bit curious about it.
Short lead from a fairly long AP article that might be titled "Conversation with a Dictator in his Dotage."
The African leader some call a hero and others a destructive despot suggests people in his country aren't hungry, they just can't eat their favorite food. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his people are "very, very happy" though aid agencies report 4 million of 11.6 million face famine.
You can read the rest at the link. The writer needs to go back to school and take Remedial Journalism...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Absolutely not, Fred. Writers should stay as far away from journalism classes as possible. I recommend matriculating in The School of Hard Knocks, myself, with graduate work either at the bar or under it.
Poor decisions from a senile old dictator in a culture of corruption.
But of course it's all Bush's fault yadda yadda Haliburton blah blah so we should pay them money forever to feed the hungry so they can grow up and repeat the broken culture.
Feed the hungry so they can keep on breathing and reproducing more hungry mouths. That's right, end poverty now.
#4
Slightly off yopic, but directly on theme.
When I was very young (1951) we were invited to a local Catholic Church for a fundraiser to benefit the "Starving Hatians"
I remember it because they had a Bingo game set up with the letters HAITI instead of BINGO, and we had a very fun time as the two "I's" would get confused.
How is this relevant?
Last I looked Haiti was in no better shape than in 1951, starving, riots, etc, so charity didn't help a thing.
I say cut them loose and let them starve, "Perpetual Aid" doesn't work.
Help them once, twice, then use the "BaseBall" rule, three strikes and you're out.
True disaster, with NO convenient "Out" and you change, or the next "Tenants" inherit the land.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/18/2005 13:20 Comments ||
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That's unusual enough that they put it in the paper? I think I'll stick with Lufthansa...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Flight PK 308 was travelling from Karachi to Islamabad on Friday night when sudden turbulence, caused by the bird being sucked into the engine.
WTF? Don't get me wrong, turbulence can be frightening (I never knew a 747 wing can bend like it did on my last flight, with Lufthansa btw), but this smells like the pilots panicked after losing an engine. Turbulence caused by a birdstrike??? C'mooon..
Posted by: Rafael ||
09/18/2005 19:38 Comments ||
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#2
(I never knew a 747 wing can bend like it did on my last flight, with Lufthansa btw)
In static tests on one of the first 747 airframes, the wings were deflected upward 29 feet before they gave way. Turbulence probably wouldn't come even close to doing that.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The continuing story of the Asiri girl sentenced to death for killing the man who attempted to rape her took a new twist recently when Crown Prince Sultan, minister of defense and aviation, personally intervened, Arab News has learned. Waleed Abumilha, webmaster of the site (www.freethegirl.com) that was set up to gain public support for the girl, confirmed that the crown prince had personally paid a visit to the dead manâs family in order to ask them to forgive the girl. Abumilha dismissed recent media reports that the date for the girlâs execution was near. He said: âBased on what I know, what has been reported in the media is untrue. However, the crown princeâs visit to the dead manâs family is a fact and it is dominating the local scene.â Some observers believe the girl may be released under a wide-ranging royal amnesty often given in Ramadan by the king.
The Colorado judge presiding over the case against Homaidan Al-Turki has refused to drop charges against the 36-year-old linguistics student. Al-Turki is accused by his former Indonesian Nanny of being held against her will and being sexually abused. According to sources, District Judge Marylin Leonard made her decision to continue considering the case and not to drop any of Al-Turki's charges after hearing testimony from the prosecution. Local authorities had released Al-Turki on a 50 thousand dollar bond, but had placed the accused under house arrest until the end of his trial.
