Choose a Hero for President

I am going to choose a hero for president in 2008.

Following politics kid of runs in my family. I do my homework before voting in any election. Heck, I didn't even vote for my AEA Union Rep. 'cause none of the candidates were good enough for me.

Back in 2004, I probably spent 200 hours reading articles on the various candidates and another 30-40 hours making a list of various issues and weighting their relative importance. Then listing the candidates' opinions and making a choice. Well, I decided to vote for a war hero. John Kerry carried only 19 states and D.C. but I felt good about my decision.

This year, I've been doing some online research at Vote Gopher. I've taken the Select Smart, Glassbooth, and MPR presidential selectors out of curiosity. And guess what?

As things stand right now, the most important issue in '04 is the most important issue in '08. Foreign policy. And I'm voting for a hero again.

Healthy Food On Budget?

As the family wage-earner/bill-payer/shopper, it's my job to keep us all fed. I actually enjoy finding ways to save money, so it's really not much of chore to shop and cook on a budget. Just what I like to do.

Healthy food costs more but our family shops carefully and stocks up on sale items. We also have a warehouse store membership for bulk items. And bulk items are also great for a game of stack 'em.

But saving money on healthy food requires careful planning and creative cooking. We have a few cookbooks and this pdf from the USDA with 40 thrifty recipes. It really helps to have our weekly meals planned out before making a shopping list and heading down the grocery aisles.

When we find a good sale or food coupon, it's time to ditch the meal plan and take advantage of cheap eats. Recently we found FOODPAIRING and started experimenting with new combinations of veggies and meats. It's fun to invent soups and main dishes! Wild animals make a good cheap meal, too. Really.

For example, we ate fried trout with rice and fresh green veggies yesterday. And this afternoon we used the leftover rice and made vegetarian stir fry with sweet-n-sour sauce. Tomorrow we'll be making a big crock pot full of moose stew. (I'm not much of an outdoorsman, but my wife knows a few hunters.)

Of course we eat processed foods, but only allow 4 such meals per month. Usually one at the kids' favorite burger place, one rotisserie chicken, one family restaurant, and one pizza night at home. We use coupons on those meals if possible. Once in a while, we try one of the free Top Secret Recipes.

When all is said and done, we spend about $800 per month on food, or about $3.76 per person per day. That's frugal, considering that the USDA averages for an Alaskan family of 7 is over $1100 per month.

Be Green

Scientific American recent article 10 Solutions for Climate Change included some amazing facts. I had no idea that 20 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions are produced by timber harvesting. Or that transportation is the second leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.. And each meat-eating American produces 1.5 tons more greenhouse gases through their food choice than do their vegetarian peers.

Finally, the article mentioned the "potential last resort" of geoengineering which looks like something from a Star Trek movie.

For the record, the 10 solutions are:

1. Forego fossil fuels
2. Infrastructure upgrade to buildings, highways, and transmission lines
3. Move closer to work
   
4. Consume less
5. Be efficient with cars and energy-saving appliances
6. Eat smart, go vegetarian
   
7. Stop cutting down trees
   
8. Unplug and use less electricity
9. One child
   
10. Future fuels - solar, nuclear, maybe biodiesel?

Covert U.S. Regime Change Actions

This Wikipedia entry gives some perspective on the 'hidden' side of U.S. foreign policy. And you won't find this map in any high school textbooks. Something to consider before voting next year...

Scientific Research Videos Online

A recent USA Today article mentioned a few niche science video sharing websites. I looked at the four sites mentioned in the article in hopes of finding something useful for my classroom.

SciVee looks the most user friendly for demonstrating science concepts in high school. The tag cloud and communities on SciVee make it easy to find videos related to a single topic.

LabAction, JoVE, and DnaTube have some professional science research videos. Some of these videos might might augment a discussion or investigation of current issues and techniques in scientific research. (I sure wish this type of sharing existed back in the early '90s when I was working on an immunofluorescence assay for Blastocystis hominis.)

Of course, Google Video is the best place to search out Google/YouTube Videos. Try searching rat dissection, for instance. Very cool.

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life

Scientific American has an article about developing a 'growth mind-set' in children. Carol Dweck cites studies involving junior high students, Columbia freshman premed students, fifth graders, and other students over the past 30 years.

Students with a growth mind-set hold hard work in high regard and feel that learning is more important than good grades. Setbacks such as poor test grades made these students want to work harder next time.

On the other hand, the fixed mind-set students think that a person with talent or intelligence does not need to work hard to do well. These students attributed poor test grades to their own lack of ability and said they would not bother to try harder, preferring not to take the class again or cheat on future tests.

Milton Chen of The George Lucas Educational Foundation posted an interview with Dweck back in March where she recommended these specific strategies to build a growth mind-set:

• Teach students to think of their brain as a muscle that strengthens with use, and have them visualize the brain forming new connections every time they learn.
• When they teach study skills, convey to students that using these methods will help their brains learn better.
• Discourage use of labels ("smart," "dumb," and so on) that convey intelligence as a fixed entity.
• Praise students' effort, strategies, and progress, not their intelligence. Praising intelligence leads to students to fear challenges and makes them feel stupid and discouraged when they have difficulty.
• Give students challenging work. Teach them that challenging activities are fun and that mistakes help them learn.

All good suggestions, yes?

Experts link teen brains' immaturity, juvenile crime

In 2005, the Supreme Court decided that sentencing minors to death is unconstitutional. USA Today reports that many states are taking a new stance on teen offenders based on the ruling.

"As any parent knows," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the 5-4 majority, youths are more likely to show "a lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility" than adults. "... These qualities often result in impetuous and ill-considered actions and decisions."

Now that juvenile crime is down, states are focusing on rehabilitation.

But crimes don't usually occur in rehab, they occur out in society - when teens are in the care of parents or relatives. Should juvenile offenders go back home, go into state custody, or foster care? What environment will best support their rehabilitation? Should we sentence violent teens to life without parole?

I'm all for rehab (and abolishing the death penalty entirely), but the U.S. needs to protect it's citizens and the rule of law. So let's err on the side of caution... don't release teen offenders if they are going back into an environment where they might re-offend.