How Much Math Do We Really Need?

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How Much Math Do We Really Need?

Pickens writes "G.V. Ramanathan, a professor emeritus of mathematics, statistics and computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, writes in the Washington Post that although a lot of effort and money has been spent to make mathematics seem essential, unlike literature, history, politics and music, math has little relevance to everybody's daily life. 'All the mathematics one needs in real life can be learned in early years without much fuss,' writes Ramanathan. 'Most adults have no contact with math at work, nor do they curl up with an algebra book for relaxation.' Ramanathan says that the marketing of math has become similar to the marketing of creams to whiten teeth, gels to grow hair and regimens to build a beautiful body, but even with generous government grants over the past 25 years, countless courses, conferences, and books written on how to teach teachers to teach, where is the evidence that these efforts have helped students? A 2008 review by the Education Department found that the nation is at 'greater risk now' than it was in 1983, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress math scores for 17-year-olds have remained stagnant since the 1980s (PDF). Meanwhile those who do love math and science have been doing very well and our graduate schools are the best in the world. 'As for the rest, there is no obligation to love math any more than grammar, composition, curfew or washing up after dinner. Why create a need to make it palatable to all and spend taxpayers' money on pointless endeavors without demonstrable results or accountability?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ruby shadow

As the last sunset of October faded, it cast a ruby shadow through cranberry glass.

--Brad

Article: Reframing College Completion

Reframing College Completion
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/28/metropolitan

(Sent from Flipboard)

Ghosts? Goblins? Pssh. This is REALLY scary [repost]

I've debate for several days now about whether and how to discuss this, and I've decided that a demonstration of how vulnerable popular web sites are to hacking may be the best thing.

It is common knowledge among internet security professionals, and many savvy users, that the most popular websites - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. - are especially vulnerable because they do not force secure sessions. Basically what happens is that your initial login is encrypted, but then a session certificate ("cookie") is sent, often through unencrypted web space. If you are connecting to the service through an open, unsecured WiFi network, its like shouting your ATM PIN number across the cafeteria.

To demonstrate how easily this information can be snagged from the air, Eric Butler developed a "demonstration" application called "Firesheep." The Firefox plug-in takes only a minute or so to download and install, and then you are a hacker. No pesky terminal code or anything to worry about.

I have installed Firesheep on my desktop computer, which normally does not use WiFi, and I will be capturing my own accounts. Otherwise, what I am about to do technically violates the terms of service of about every service I am using. Be it known, though, that I am capturing only my own account data, and only for demonstration purposes.

Here is what Firesheep looks like when installed:

Now, I am going to connect my iPad to the same unsecured WiFi network ("Open Edison") and connect to my Facebook account using the Safari Mobile web browser (more about this in a minute). Here goes....

Pop. Almost instantly my account name and service appears. It even shows my profile picture.

If I double-click the entry in the Firesheep pane, I am instantly logged into Facebook using those credentials. From there I have complete account access.

Logging into other services adds them to the Firesheep pane:

And presumably they will stay there as long as I want them. There is no warning from any of the services that my account has been "hacked," because as far as they know, I am the owner of the accounts and nothing is amiss.

Now, interestingly, a few experiments show that logging onto those same services on the same unsecured network, but using an iPad app rather than the generic web browser, hides the account session cookie from Firesheep. For example, if I use the "Facebook app" Firesheep detects the account, because it is just a web app and launches the Safari Mobile browser. But connecting to my Facebook stream through Flipboard hides the session from Firesheep. And on a secured WiFi network (basically one that you have to log into) Firesheep is unable to detect the account cookies.

I'm not sharing this to turn you all into hackers. I'm doing it to make you think about how and where you use your online accounts. While Firesheep comes preloaded with scripts for detecting about a dozen of the most popular web services, "developers" can write their own (again, presumably to test the security of their own services, but then who knows?).

For more about Firesheep and a discussion about implications of web security go to Eric Butler's website http://codebutler.com/firesheep.

Ghost? Goblins. Pssh. This is REALLY scary....

I've debate for several days now about whether and how to discuss this, and I've decided that a demonstration of how vulnerable popular web sites are to hacking may be the best thing.

It is common knowledge among internet security professionals, and many savvy users, that the most popular websites - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. - are especially vulnerable because they do not force secure sessions. Basically what happens is that your initial login is encrypted, but then a session certificate ("cookie") is sent, often through unencrypted web space. If you are connecting to the service through an open, unsecured WiFi network, its like shouting your ATM PIN number across the cafeteria.

To demonstrate how easily this information can be snagged from the air, Eric Butler developed a "demonstration" application called "Firesheep." The Firefox plug-in takes only a minute or so to download and install, and then you are a hacker. No pesky terminal code or anything to worry about.

I have installed Firesheep on my desktop computer, which normally does not use WiFi, and I will be capturing my own accounts. Otherwise, what I am about to do technically violates the terms of service of about every service I am using. Be it known, though, that I am capturing only my own account data, and only for demonstration purposes.

Here is what Firesheep looks like when installed:

[cid:0A882D1A-7975-43D5-A110-E0463E7B80A8@edisonohio.edu]

Now, I am going to connect my iPad to the same unsecured WiFi network ("Open Edison") and connect to my Facebook account using the Safari Mobile web browser (more about this in a minute). Here goes....

Pop. Almost instantly my account name and service appears. It even shows my profile picture.

[cid:B83C05DD-D116-45EB-96F5-166A75A99BE8@edisonohio.edu]

If I double-click the entry in the Firesheep pane, I am instantly logged into Facebook using those credentials. From there I have complete account access.

Logging into other services adds them to the Firesheep pane:

[cid:B15C94BF-A8E3-4FED-ABBF-56D5510A5B16@edisonohio.edu]

And presumably they will stay there as long as I want them. There is no warning from any of the services that my account has been "hacked," because as far as they know, I am the owner of the accounts and nothing is amiss.

Now, interestingly, a few experiments show that logging onto those same services on the same unsecured network, but using an iPad app rather than the generic web browser, hides the account session cookie from Firesheep. For example, if I use the "Facebook app" Firesheep detects the account, because it is just a web app and launches the Safari Mobile browser. But connecting to my Facebook stream through Flipboard hides the session from Firesheep. And on a secured WiFi network (basically one that you have to log into) Firesheep is unable to detect the account cookies.

I'm not sharing this to turn you all into hackers. I'm doing it to make you think about how and where you use your online accounts. While Firesheep comes preloaded with scripts for detecting about a dozen of the most popular web services, "developers" can write their own (again, presumably to test the security of their own services, but then who knows?).

For more about Firesheep and a discussion about implications of web security go to Eric Butler's website http://codebutler.com/firesheep.>

See and download the full gallery on posterous

What Senior College really means

I have just come from leading the third session of a Senior College mini-course at Dorothy Love Retirement Community in Sidney. About 20 active seniors attended the three Tuesday evening sessions. The topic: Bananas. I decided to take a single, everyday subject - one we all take for granted - and explore it from a multi-disciplinary approach. So, over the course of three weeks we looked at bananas from a scientific, historical, political, economic, cultural, and personal perspective. We made connections from politics to science, from economics to music, and back again.

At the end of tonight's session, one of the participants came up to chat. She smiled and said thank you. Then she said she was born in '18. She had lost her husband of 65 years in June, and she is trying to get out and do more things. And seeing that I wasn't getting it, she said, "college was never an option for me. I was born in Sioux City, and had to go west to find work. I'm grateful for this opportunity to experience what college might have been like for me."

Wow! Let's do it again! Soon.

WidgetBox Mobile simplifies web app development

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The service has a monthly fee, but is worth watching as a bellwether of other online app design+deploy options.