Learning gap

Tony Norman, who writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettte, thinks that we are off the mark when we explain the racial education gap by poor teaching or poor funding.  

The gap isn't because of "some defect in the cognitive abilities of black students. Education isn't racially coded to prevent minority kids from learning the material."

"Parents of black students have to become insistent stakeholders who personally reinforce the value of education even if they're not educated themselves."

He thinks the key to closing that gap is in the parents.  This should sound familiar if you've read about KIPP charter schools.  When the two KIPP founder/teachers started to be successful with students, one of their discoveries was that education works best when the parents are personally involved stakeholders.

Tesla on track

Tesla's Model S, selling for about $50-60k, was the new best-selling full size luxury sedan in the U.S. in 2013, with about 18,000 cars sold.  Production of the Model S is projected to grow by a whopping 50% in 2014.

You may remember (post December 10) that owner Elon Musk's strategy for his electric car company was to start out with a high end model (done), then the Model S (successful), then a mass market version.  

That last step, the Model X, will probably start being delivered to customers in 2017.

An essential step to the mass market Tesla is something Musk calls the "Giga factory."  "Current worldwide battery production of laptop cells — the kind Tesla uses — would be more than doubled to meet the company’s needs for the new vehicle and Tesla believes the best way to do it is a purpose-built factory."

 This coming mass-market electric vehicle is  "the car we’ve always wanted to make,” Musk told CNN.

Ukrainian lad

"A lad from Lviv" seems to have created a turning point in history.  

As you know (yesterday's post), protests against the government resulted in the president fleeing the country.  I didn't know til today that a 26-year-old young man, Volodymyr Parasiuk, probably was responsible for that.

photo:  univest, inc

Tense negotiations between protesters (the opposition) and the government had resulted in an agreement last week that kept Pres. Yanukovych in power, based on his promise that he would allow elections later this year.  

Then last Friday night, Parasiuk jumped up in front of the crowded city square and "made an electrifying impromptu speech denouncing the opposition for "shaking hands with this killer."  82 people had died on the streets during the protests, mostly killed by Yanukovych's  forces.

Yanukovych  "flew out of Kiev by helicopter that night."

Ukrainian restraint

Ukraine's protests (see post of February 7) have turned into full-fledged revolt against their government and President Yanukovych, who just days ago ran from the capitol.

 People poured into his compound this weekend and found luxury that astonished them.

Instead of escalating protest into civil war, there has been restraint.  Parliament moved quickly to set up a new government which is supported by the police and the military.

And, in the midst of the chaos, there has been no looting.

Ukrainians, I salute you and I wish you well.

Inherited suffering

Here's a view of the drug overdose death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman that you probably haven't heard yet.  It's the viewpoint of a psychiatrist.

Dr. Keith Ablow says, "I know what kind of damage Hoffman has done because I routinely pick up the pieces after addicts decimate their families." 

"They [children and spouse] often wonder whether anything in life can be trusted, whether they can ever be safe from catastrophe.  And that makes them vulnerable to depression and drug addiction and personality disorders, just like their dad was. Round and round and round. That’s the real way psychiatric suffering is passed through generations.

"I am on the front lines.  I know this to be true."

Leverage an idea

Luis von Ahn had a wonderfully productive idea - a way to get the web translated completely freely.  It would cost about $50 million to hire professionals just to translate Wikipedia into Spanish, so how expensive would it be to translate the whole web?

The amazing idea has started the project and gets it done for free.  Watch this TED talk to get the idea.  Luis von Ahn is the inventor of CAPTCHA and Duolingo (see the posts of February 13, 14, 17)).

Lake Superior

A good percentage of you readers are outside the U.S. and may not know that Lake Superior is located on the American-Canadian border along the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

It's the largest lake in the world by surface area, though Lake Baikal is deeper.  Its water is cold all year and violent storms have sunk ships (like the Edmund Fitzgerald).  The Minnesota shoreline is rocky, rugged, dramatic.

Duluth, Minnesota, at the farthest western point of the lake, is an inland seaport and a take-off point for wilderness hiking and camping along the North Shore.  If you go, do see Canal Park, Lake Superior Railroad Museum, and the S.S. William A. Irvin Oar Boat.

Ice Caves

Lake Superior, the biggest freshwater lake in the world, has something rare to offer this winter:  ice-filled caves which are accessible on foot.  The lake is nearly completely frozen over, so it's possible to walk out there a couple of miles (instead of boating) to the caves.

Pictures abound.  There's some excellent ones here at Minnesota Public Radio.  National Parks Traveler has a great video of the ice formations.

Monuments movie

We saw "The Monuments Men" this weekend:  really enjoyable despite the fact that the plot doesn't always progress smoothly .

Not that we needed it, but the true WWII story upon which it's based gives additional reason to be appalled by Nazism.  Hitler ordered the stealing of works of art scattered all over Europe.  Homes, churches, museums were looted.  But there's even more:  he ordered it to be burned in the event of his losing the war . . which happened. This movie tells the story of a group of Americans who set out to save and return the art pieces.

Big names star in the movie, among them one Bill Murray (we love "Groundhog Day").  He seems to be pretty unconventional even for Hollywood, to the point that he fired his agents and managers ten years ago and he's interviewed here.

Duolingo faster

Which is better, online or traditional class learning?  If you can manage your own persistence and motivation, online is pretty exciting.  It can be faster, and it can be free like Duolingo.

Duolingo funded research to discover the effectiveness of its program.  The research was done independently by a couple of professors, one of them the Chair of the Statistics Department.

"The result . . . it only takes a Duolingo user 34 hours to learn the equivalent of a first college semester’s worth of Spanish . . A similar study by the same researchers who conducted Duolingo’s study, by the way, found that it took Rosetta Stone users between 55 and 60 hours to learn the same amount of material."

Loving to learn

My son was with me last night as I wrote today's post (below) about Duolingo.

While we talked about the win/win concept, he looked up from his phone, said "Hey, I just downloaded it" - and he started speaking German.

He loves it.  It's not like a class, but like a game!  Now that's a good idea.

Customers choose

Tech writer Michael Thomsen thinks the language app, Duolingo, is unethical.  I'm trying to understand his objection.

A student wants to learn a language and Duolingo educates him at no cost.  BuzzFeed and CNN need pages translated and are willing to purchase that service.  Duolingo sells them the pages translated by their students.  

The student, BuzzFeed and CNN, and Duolingo all freely make this choice.  As soon as they are not happy with the transaction, they can quit.  Where is the exploitation?  It's win/win.

Duolingo

You know those squiggly words that you have to type for password-protected forms?  Luis von Ahn invented that system and sold it to Google.  Now he's invented a new free mobile app for language learning called "Duolingo."

His partner Severin Hacker says, "Free education will really change the world."

They found an interesting way to make the app sustainable without selling ads.  BuzzFeed and CNN pay for page translations that students work on as part of the language learning process.

Students get knowledge for free.  BuzzFeed and CNN pay Duolingo for the translations they want.  Everyone should be happy but, surprisingly, some people are not.  Their complaints are the subject tomorrow.

Knowledge is wealth

The neanderthal is his cave had the same natural resources as we in this age have, but he didn't know what to do with them.  The brilliant George Gilder claims in this interview that "wealth is essentially knowledge."

German energy

Germany's energy problems are not improving.

 The Telegraph (UK) reports that "Germany's shift to renewable energy was once [Chancellor] Angela Merkel’s flagship policy - now it has become her biggest headache . . . Such is the mess over energy that the future of Germany’s much-vaunted economic competitiveness is now seriously threatened."

In a nutshell:  nuclear reactors are in the process of being shut down and wind farms are under-performing.

To make matters worse, in order to offset the reduced availability of energy from these two sources, coal plants are quickly being built - with accompanying carbon emissions.  

Sadly, a huge price is being paid by German consumers and businesses to reduce carbon emissions through renewable energy projects, but carbon emissions are going up instead of going down.  

It's possible that the very capable Chancellor allowed herself to be swayed by emotional environmental claims that were not sufficiently thought through.  

Olympians endure

Olympian athletes submit to long-term self-discipline.  We admire their commitment.  We wonder, how can they give so much of their lives to a sport?  We instinctively know that they are not enjoying it all the time.  Training means hours of holding themselves to the sometimes-tedious.

 The Atlantic explains "How Olympians Stay Motivated," based on a study of figure skating champions.  Can you guess their most-often used method to get themselves through the hours of tedium?

Remarkable monks

Armed special police in Kiev, Ukraine, stand behind a shield wall facing angry demonstrators in this January photo.  Civil protests began last November in favor of moving their economy/culture closer to Europe and further from Russia.

Some worry that a civil war could erupt in the streets with all the resulting loss of life and property.  So these Russian Orthodox monks are willing to risk much to subdue the raging emotions.  They place themselves in the middle of the faceoff,  taking shifts to pray on the street.  Go here for comments that one of them made on his facebook page.

In the words of Fr. Alipy, "You can’t even imagine how important it is for the clergy to stand there!"  There's a youtube video of the monks praying in the street while police rattle their shields.

Suicide bomber child

One morning at an Afghanistan checkpoint, a child's crying was heard.  There was a girl a little way into the desert crying - and she was wearing a suicide vest.

She had been sent by her brother to the checkpoint to detonate the vest.  She is nine years old.  Read her story here as reported by BBC News.

She says that she was not allowed to go to school and that her brother told her, "You're here in this world and you will die. You are not here to learn or to do other things or to expect that your word will carry any weight. You are here just to die and do your duty."

RR economy

(cont'd)

Of course, all this RR industry growth stimulates growth in the industries that serve railroads because RRs are tremendous customers as well as producers.

GE Transportation, for 100 years a locomotive builder, has opened a huge new plant in Texas."With the help of massive, overhead cranes, a lean staff of 400 newly hired GE workers in matching black polo shirts, some toting iPads, snap locomotives together like kids with a Lego set, popping five preassembled modules onto a 73-foot-long steel platform. 

"The 12-cylinder engines are brought in from GE’s plant in Grove City, Pa.; the alternators come from the Erie factory; the traction-motor combos from a GE facility in Mexico.

"These 220-ton rolling power plants are majestic. But GE’s locomotives–as well as those from rivals like Caterpillar, Siemens and Bombardier–are smart, too, crammed with as many as 250 sensors and 20 or more microprocessors to monitor critical functions and performance. By analyzing the massive reams of data collected, GE helps railroads and their customers increase their productivity, decrease fuel use and minimize downtime. "

The efficiency and value that railroads are achieving have created wealth that supports thousands of families. 

See the locomotive building process at the Texas plant here.

RRs invest in safety

(cont'd)

Oil has been a big part of this surge in rail transport.  The first crude oil coming out of the Bakken formation in North Dakota was moved by train in 2009.  Burlington Northern is now moving 600,000 barrels per day:  compare to 54,000 in 2010.

Moving so much oil increases the risk of accidents and there have been several.  

"Congress passed legislation requiring the country’s major railroads to fund, build and implement a new, safer “Positive Train Control” system by the end of 2015. The law called for Union Pacific alone to refit an average of 2.5 locomotives and 10 miles of track per day for seven years, placing GPS devices on every locomotive."

Beyond this program, there's "92,000 cars that need to be retrofitted."  At what cost, who knows.

Unlike wind energy and car manufacturing, the railroad industry is footing the bill with no government subsidies,  to the tune of billions and billions of dollars.   

RR

Railroads have been on a roll that most of us just didn't see coming.  "The industry, so recently an aging also-ran in the age of superhighways, is now a fountain of superlative figures. ." like 10,000 new jobs since 2009.  "This is the best they've been doing in half a century," says a rail consultant. Revenues (income, not profit) have climbed 19% since 2009.

Well, at least one investor apparently saw it coming.  Warren Buffett purchased the Burlington Northern RR four years ago for $34 billion, while today the company is estimated to be worth $65 billion.

Improved technology has helped railroads achieve amazing efficiency, that is, work can get done using up fewer resources:  just a single gallon of fuel can move a ton of goods 500 miles.

The boom of U.S. domestic oil and gas production is another factor driving railroad growth.  It has to be transported as economically as possible.  But there's been a challenge in that area, details tomorrow.