Alan Jacobs on education:

That so many universities put star lecturers online for free suggests that they don't think those lectures are central to what they provide. So what is central, then? To that question there's a cynical answer and an idealistic one, and both of them are true.

Abstract of the day:

Two useless but true theorems are proved.

Two! My papers are lucky to have one useless but true theorem.

The paper is from Paul Krugman. Steven Levitt has some cutting remarks about the paper and its author.

How we fight crime in Baton Rouge:

Both Evans and Thibodeaux are alleged by prosecutors to have accepted money or other things of value from St. Pierre in return for steering no-bid business to St. Pierre’s technology and crime-camera company, NetMethods.

Chester told the judge that Evans steered crime-camera work to NetMethods after he received gifts that included “tickets to approximately four New Orleans Saints football games; a 50th birthday party … and overnight trips at various hotels in New Orleans.”

NetMethods later was awarded approximately $3.5 million from the city-parish to establish a wireless network of surveillance cameras and a gunshot detection system in high crime areas in Baton Rouge.

According to a 2010 report from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, the wireless system is not robust enough for officers to consistently use while in the field.

Maintenance fees for the security canopy cost the Baton Rouge Police Department more than $400,000 annually and system failures appear to be frequent, based on a review of numerous e-mail exchanges and other written reports.

I'm not sure what to say.

Slow it down:

“Talk about the number 1 for 45 minutes?” said Chris Covello, who teaches 16 students ages 5 and 6. “I was like, I don’t know. But then I found you really could. Before, we had a lot of ground to cover, and now it’s more open-ended and gets kids thinking.”

Apparently the latest fad in elementary education is "Singapore math", which takes its sweet time. I don't know anything about kindergarten, but my number one wish for my college students is that I could teach less material, and do it more slowly and thoroughly.