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Ever since I started to get a real picture of what mathematics is about I've viewed middle school and high school mathematics education like a bit of a snob. I've read the treatise of Paul Lockhart, "A Mathematician's Lament," on the dystopia of cultural attitudes toward mathematics in pre-collegiate education. I've written responses to articles in the Atlantic authored by economists who, after getting PhDs in quantitative economics, still talk about math as if it's just a bag of tricks. I've even taught guest lectures at high schools and middle schools to prove by example that an engaging, thought-provoking mathematics education is possible for 8th graders and up. I regularly tell my calculus students that half the things we make them do are completely pointless for their lives, while trying very hard to highlight the truly deep concepts and the few tools they might have reason to use.
But it's generally agreed that something's wrong with mathematics education in the US. There are a lot of questions to ask about why: are teachers not trained? Are students too focused on sports? Are Americans becoming intellectually lazy?
These all have their place in the debate, but the question I want to focus on in this article is: are policy makers designing good standards? I often hear about fantastic teachers who are stifled by administrators and standardized testing, so the popular answer is no. Moreover, though I haven't done a principled study of this (again, my snobbishness peeking out), my impression is that even the fantastic math teachers at the most prestigious schools are still forced to hold the real mathematical learning in extracurriculars like math circles, or math symposiums.
And so the next natural step in analyzing the state of mathematics education in the US is to look at the standards in detail from a mathematical perspective. There was a nice article in the Washington Post detailing one ludicrous exam given to first graders in New York (exams for 6 year olds!). Here's a snapshot:
This prompted me to actually look at the text of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, which is the currently accepted standard for most states. I have heard a lot about the political debate over efficacy and testing and assessment, but almost nothing about the mathematical content of the standards. Do they actually promote critical thinking skills and mathematical problem solving, as they claim? Does it differ enough from Lockhart's dystopia?
My conclusion is:
While the Common Core indicates movement toward the right attitude on mathematics education, the attitudes aren't reflected in the content of the standards themselves.
The big distinction I want to make in this article is the (perhaps counterintuitive notion) that mathematical thinking skills are largely unrelated to knowledge of mathematical facts, or ability to perform mechanical computations. The reason we teach mathematics to gain critical thinking skills is that mathematics gives examples of when they're needed that are as simple and boiled down to their true essence as possible. And the text of the Common Core mostly ignores this.
I cannot claim that the writers of the standard don't understand the mathematics deeply enough to realize this, and it would be too pompous even by my standards to imply that I know better than the thousands of educators that worked on this document. It could be the case that it's instead the result of bureaucracy and partisanship, and the designers of the Common Core felt they could only make progress in certain areas. But even so, all we are left with is the document itself, and I want to give a principled (but more or less unstructured) inspection of its technical content.
There are some exceptions to my conclusion, and I will detail them as they come up, but the general picture is still this: the intent is better than it used to be but the implementation is still wrong. At the end, I'll discuss why this is important and what I think should be done instead.
Now, before we jump in to the text of the standards themselves, I want to point out a few resources provided for teachers and discuss them briefly. First, there is a 3-minute intro video by the Common Core about why the standards are important
Putting aside the animation style, this video sends some disturbing messages. First, that getting a lot of money is what defines and creates success. Not having a deep understanding of the problems you're facing, not having strong relationships, not helping people, but money. All of this focus on competition and money suggests that the standards are primarily business oriented. I would argue that this is not a useful position for education, but that would digress. Suffice it to say, the Common Core people should know that the most successful mathematician of all time, Paul Erdős, was homeless and had but a few hundred dollars to his name at any given time. He instead survived (indeed, excelled to legendary status) on his deep understanding of problem solving and his strong relationships with other mathematicians. This is an extreme example but it makes my point clear: collaboration, not competition, breeds success.
The second misconception expressed in the video is that mathematics (indeed, all learning) is like a staircase, and you have to learn the concepts in, say, 6th grade before you can learn anything in 7th. Beyond basic technical proficiency, this is simply not true for the kinds of skills we want to develop in our students. And the standards for basic technical proficiency in mathematics have never really changed: be competent in arithmetic and know what a variable is by the end of grade school; be competent in basic algebraic manipulation by the end of middle school or freshmen year of high school. Then the rest of high school is about being exposed to other areas, most often geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and stats, none of which depends on another too heavily (at the level taught in high school). The details of exactly what technical skills are required for high school students is unclear. Why? Because as one goes from elementary school to middle school to high school, the focus on learned skills should gradually change from mechanical abilities to big ideas, and that transition arguably begins some time in middle school.
One of the common core "big ideas" we'll look at later is that of similarity in geometric figures. But it's clear that you can go through your entire life's work without thinking about similar triangles, and it's hardly relevant to most disciplines. Why then, should we teach it? Well, there's a very good reason, but it's at the heart of what the Common Core standards are missing, so we'll save the explanation for later.
The video does make one good point: standards is not learning, and learning only happens with great teachers. But really, meeting standards isn't learning either! It's just evidence to learning, which is extremely hard to measure. But even worse is meeting the wrong standards, and that's what I'm afraid Common Core is promoting.
Speaking of which, here are the actual standards themselves for the reader to peruse. The Common Core website has the full standard, also available as a pdf, and the Chicago Public School administration released a lengthy pdf explaining the standards in detail more or less specific to the school system. CPS also provides example lessons on their website, and I'm pleasantly surprised that a handful of the lessons try to flush out the more insightful ideas I find lacking in the Common Core itself.
So let's dive right on in.
Common Core: Too Narrow and Too General
The standard starts out by describing a set of general guidelines which I generally agree with. They are:
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
- Model with mathematics.
- Use appropriate tools strategically.
- Attend to precision.
- Look for an make use of structure.
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
But even as they are true, the descriptions of these tenets are either far too narrow or far too general. Take, for example, this excerpt from the description of the (arguably MOST mathematical) skill "Look for an express regularity in repeated reasoning," also known as "Reasoning about patterns."
Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, and look both for general methods and for shortcuts. … Noticing the regularity in the way terms cancel when expanding $ (x-1)(x+1), (x-1)(x^2 + x + 1), $ and $ (x-1)(x^3 + x^2 + x + 1)$ might lead them to the general formula for the sum of a geometric series. As they work to solve a problem, mathematically proficient students maintain an oversight of the process while attending to the details. They continually evaluate the reasonableness of their intermediate results.
Yes, a mathematically proficient student will be able to infer a general pattern here. But it's phrased in a way that makes it seem like expanding products of polynomials is the central goal while the real mathematical skill is just "looking for a shortcut" in calculations. Moreover, the sentence that follows is equally applicable to any profession. Indeed, while working to cook a meal, a proficient chef maintains an oversight of the process while attending to details, and continually evaluates the reasonableness of their intermediate results. Finding shortcuts is not mathematical, nor is it culinary. But reasoning about those shortcuts is, whether or not they're correct. I have plenty of calculus students who "find shortcuts" that simply aren't true, but don't bother to think about them, and are hence exercising no mathematical abilities. It's a fine distinction that the Common Core seems to ignore at some times and embrace at others.
The best example of this is in "Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others." Here they wonderfully lay out the kind of logical reasoning students should learn in mathematics. How I wish that all mathematics education was based around this sole principle! The problem is that none of these thoughts are reflected in the standards themselves! Instead, the standards generally simply request that a student "knows" a particular argument, not that they generate original ideas or critique the ideas of others. The generation of new mathematical questions and arguments is, without a doubt, the best way to learn mathematical thinking.
Indeed, let's take a closer look at the standards themselves.
Inspecting the Standards Themselves
The list of Common Core Standards breaks mathematical abilities down by grade level and by area. I think the Washington Post article gives a very good critique of the lowest grade standards, so let's focus on high school level. This is where I claim the true big ideas must shine through, if they come up anywhere at all.
The high school standards are broken up into areas by subject:
- Number and Quantity
- Algebra
- Functions
- Modeling
- Geometry
- Statistics and Probability
So far so good, I guess. I'm quite pleased to see statistics recognized here. Let's start with "Number and Quantity." This section is broken into "The Real Number System," "Quantities," "The Complex Number System," and "Vector and Matrix Quantities."
The first one, "The Real Number System," already shows some huge red flags. There are three standards here, and I quote:
- Extend the properties of exponents to rational exponents.
- Explain how the definition of the meaning of rational exponents follows from extending the properties of integer exponents to those values, allowing for a notation for radicals in terms of rational exponents. For example, we define 51/3 to be the cube root of 5 because we want (51/3)3 = 5(1/3)3 to hold, so (51/3)3 must equal 5
- Rewrite expressions involving radicals and rational exponents using the properties of exponents.
- Use properties of rational and irrational numbers
- Explain why the sum or product of two rational numbers is rational; that the sum of a rational number and an irrational number is irrational; and that the product of a nonzero rational number and an irrational number is irrational.
This is supposed to indicate that someone understands real numbers? Number 1 only shows that one knows how to do arithmetic with exponents, asking the student to know a very specific argument, and number 2 is just memorizing some basic properties of rational numbers. There are some HUGE questions left unasked. Here are a few
- What is a real number? How does it differ from other kinds of numbers?
- Is infinity a real number? If so, how does it fit with the definition of a real number? If not, is it some other kind of number?
- What does it mean to be rational and irrational?
- What are some examples of irrational numbers? Why are those examples irrational?
- Are there more irrational numbers than rational numbers? Vice versa? Are they "equal" in size?
- If we can't know it exactly, how would you estimate a the value of a number like $ \pi^4$?
To be fair, the grade 8 standards address some of these questions, but in an odd way. Rather than say that students should know that real numbers can be (sort of) defined by a finite integer part and an infinite decimal expansion, it says
Understand informally that every number has a decimal expansion; for rational numbers show that the decimal expansion repeats eventually, and convert a decimal expansion which repeats eventually into a rational number.
Does that mean that a number can have multiple decimal expansions? Does every decimal expansion also correspond to a number? Or can a decimal expansion represent multiple numbers? What about the number whose "decimal expansion" has an infinite number of 1's before the decimal point? Does that mean that infinity is a real number? As you can see, these are some very basic questions about real numbers, which are arguably more stimulating and important than being able to convert back and forth between decimal expansions and rational numbers (as the 8th grade standard requires, but nobody actually does for numbers harder than 1/3).
The important point I want to make here is that the truly "Big Ideas" underlying this topic are as follows, and they're only halfway related to numbers themselves:
- Understand the importance of precise definitions, and be able to apply those definitions to simple questions, such as "Prove that 1/3 is a real number," and "Argue why infinity is not a real number."
- Understand that we can define notation as we see fit, e.g. $ 5^{1/3}$, and more deeply that mathematical concepts are invented via definitions.
- Understand the concept of a correspondence between two collections. Know how to argue that a correspondence is or is not bijective (by any other name).
- Understand basic proofs of impossibility.
- Understand the concept of approximation, and understand how to quickly get rough approximations of quantities. Extend this to estimate concrete real-world quantities, like the number of pianos in your hometown.
And these ideas are the actual ideas that the Common Core is looking for, the ones that apply across all of mathematics and actually relate to real critical thinking skills. But it seems that the only place in the standard where they address the idea of a correspondence is in a Kindergarten "Counting" standard:
CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.C.6 Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
"Number and Quantity" goes on to describe the importance of consistently using units and rounding measurements to the right number of digits; memorizing properties of complex numbers (with regards to which any introductory college professor will start over anyway); and more rote manipulation of vectors and matrices that few high school students have any reason to know. Other big ideas apply here, ideas from geometry and the idea of correspondence in particular, but the standards still focus on mechanical abilities.
The Common Core folks argue in quite a few places that knowing the reasons for why certain mathematical facts are true is what constitutes a true understanding of those facts. And yes, I agree. But there's much more to the story. If we want students to know why we define $ 5^{1/3}$ as we do, to make a nice extension of the rules of exponent arithmetic, it's certainly a deeper understanding than just memorizing how to do the arithmetic itself. But it's just another kind of memorization! It's memorization of a specific mathematical reason for a specific mathematical fact. It's a better kind of memorization than we used to require, but is it critical thinking or problem solving? It's hard to say whether or not it requires more of the mental faculty we want it to, but if it's not then we lose, and if it is, then this is a pretty indirect way of going about it.
Again, my big point here is that the requirements of the Standard overlook the deep underlying mathematical thinking skills that we hope are being developed when we ask them to know whatever it is we want them to know. These big concepts like correspondence and impossibility and approximation should be the central focus. The particular rules of exponents and the specific properties of irrational numbers, these are tools and sidenotes that accentuate fluency in the big concepts as applied to solving problems. Almost nobody needs to know facts about irrational numbers in their careers, but relating things by correspondence is a truly useful mathematical skill.
Taking a Step Back
So let's pause for a moment and give some counterpoint. I could just be focusing super narrowly on one or two topics that I feel the Common Core misrepresents, and using that gripe to claim the entire Common Core is crap when it actually has lots of merit in other areas.
While I do think that the standard addresses a few topics well (more on that later), I claim the pattern of "Number and Quantity," is endemic. Take for example the section on Geometry, Measurement & Dimension. I was really hopeful here that one of the standards would be "Understand what dimension means," but no dice. Instead it's the same old memorization of formulas for volumes of geometric shapes.
Even worse, when asked to do derive these formulas, the standard says
Give an informal argument for the formulas for the circumference of a circle, area of a circle, volume of a cylinder, pyramid, and cone. Use dissection arguments, Cavalieri's principle, and informal limit arguments.
I'd be surprised if many of my readers had even heard of Cavalieri's principle before reading this, but this is the pattern striking again. The standard expects the students to know something very specific: not just how to use Cavalieri's principle, but how to apply it just to these special objects, while ignoring the underlying principles at work. A true understanding of measurement and volume would be:
Reason about the volume of a solid you've never seen before.
But more deeply, Cavalieri's principle is just another kind of correspondence argument applied to geometry. And I see this right away without muddling through that terribly written Wikipedia page because I have a solid understanding of the notion of a correspondence and I can recognize it at work.
The "dissection" argument is another deep principle that is mostly ignored in the standard, so let me spell it out. One way to solve problems is to break them down into simpler problems you know how to solve, and to figure out how to piece them back together again. Any high school student can understand this technique because by high school they've learned to put their pants on one leg at a time. But this idea alone accounts for a wide breadth of mathematical solutions to problems (the day it was applied to signal processing is often credited as the day the Age of Information began!). So they should be seeing (and using) this technique applied to many problems, be they about algebra or geometry or cats. It shouldn't be hidden away in a single (perhaps memorized) geometric argument.
And finally, the "limit argument" (called exhaustion in some educational circles, but I don't like this name) is an application of approximation. The idea is that a sequence of increasingly good lies will eventually give you the truth, and it's one of the deepest thoughts that mankind has ever had! So indeed, the "Big Ideas" across this standard are big ideas, but the writers of the standard neglect to point out their significance in favor of very specific and arguably pointless factual requirements.
The geometry section is full of other similar nonsense: using laws of sines and cosines, the same geometry proofs that Paul Lockhart derides (page 19), and memorizing minutiae about the equations of parabolas, ellipses, hyperbolas. They say the big ideas are similarity, transformations, and symmetry (indeed these are big ideas!) but then largely revert to the same old awful kinds of rote memorization and symbol pushing we've grown to hate about math.
A real course in geometry, measurement, and mathematical problem solving might even follow Lockhart's book, Measurement. In fact, if students really absorbed the contents of this book, that would constitute an entire high school mathematics education. Why do I say that? Because this book focuses on developing mathematical thinking skills in a way that no high school education I've heard of has attempted. This book emphasizes methods and exploration over facts, and teaches readers to conjecture and reason without telling them how to do everything. It provides numerous exercises without clear answers and has no solution manual. And I claim that any facts required by the standards that are not covered there could be taught to a student who is comfortable with this book in one month or less. That is, all of the "standards" simply fall out of the more important deeper concepts, and we should be working forward from the deep ideas. We should use things like the law of sines as examples of these deep principles in action, but knowing or not knowing the law of sines or when to use it gives little indication of critical thinking.
I could continue with algebra, and the other sections, but I think my point is clear. The standards are filled with the same arbitrary choices of technical facts, and the deep ideas, the kinds of thinking we want to develop, are absent.
Modeling and Other Big Ideas
There is one aspect of mathematical problem solving that I think the Common Core addresses well, and that is modeling. That is, students need to be able to take a poorly defined problem, whether it's "analyzing the stopping distance for a car" or asking what constitutes a number, and boil it down to its essence. This means making and questioning assumptions, debating the quality of a model, testing and revising, and interpreting results in a principled way. This is arguably the only kind of mathematics that non-mathematicians do outside of academia, and I feel that the description in the Common Core does justice to its importance. Even better, they admit there can be no "list" of facts the students are expected to know about specific models or tools. Here the Common Core gives in to the truth that discussion and original arguments are the key to developing fluency. In my imagination there were a select few key players lobbying for this to be included in the Core, and I say bravo to you, well done!
But there are some other big ideas that the Common Core misses entirely.
One of these is the idea of generalization. That is, one core part of mathematical thinking is to take a solution to a given problem and extend it to more general patterns and problems. I see only vague allusions to this concept in the Common Core (students are expected to know, for example, how to generate a sequence when given a pattern). But this is literally the core stuff of mathematical problem solving: if you can't solve a hard problem, try to simplify it until you can solve it, and then try to generalize your solution back to the original problem. This is why it makes sense to think about matrices and polynomials as "generalizations of integers," because natural facts about integers extend (or don't extend as the case may be) to these more general settings. Students should be comfortable facing problems that may require simplification and mathematically "feeling around" for insights.
The second idea is that of the algorithm. I'm not talking about programming, that's a different story. I'm talking about procedures that anyone might follow to get something done. People follow algorithms all day, and some of the most natural problems (and interesting problems for students to think about) are algorithmic in nature: how to guarantee you win a game, how to find the quickest way to get somewhere, how to win the heart of that cute guy or girl. Indeed, students are expected to follow algorithms all over the Common Core, from approximating irrationals by rationals to solving algebra and making inferences. The only non algorithmic aspect of the Common Core is modeling, and here they provide an algorithm for how to do it! And so it makes sense to study exactly what makes an algorithm an algorithm, when algorithms apply, and more deeply what makes an algorithm good.
The last point I want to make is that true mathematical understanding arises from trying to solve problems that you are not told how to solve ahead of time, and recognizing when these big ideas apply and when they do not. Students love to solve puzzles for their own sake, and they don't need to be embedded in stupid "real world" applications like computing mortgage payments. Indeed, this is what Sergio Correa did in his financially destitute school in Mexico, and his students have made progress beyond belief (see, Common Core people? Money is not the problem or the solution!). It's okay for problems to be left unsolved by students for days, weeks, or even years, and students need to be comfortable with identifying their own lack of understanding.
I want to expand on the idea a bit more. Taking it to the extreme, you could ask a more daring question: should students be exposed to problems they cannot possibly solve? My answer is yes! Emphatically, yes! A thousand times, yes! Student need to be exposed to many kinds of problems they cannot solve to be prepared for a world in which most problems don't have known solutions (or else they wouldn't be problems in the first place). Here are a few examples:
1. They should be exposed to problems that can be solved in principle but are too hard to solve with the techniques they know well.
For example: elementary level students who are just beginning to learn about variables should be asked to add up all the numbers between 1 and 100. They should be encouraged to try it by hand until they're convinced it's too hard, and they should be rewarded if they actually do manage to do it by hand. They should then be encouraged to think of other, cleverer, ways to solve the problem. No idea is crazier than adding it up by hand, and so much time (at least a full class session) should be spent puzzling over what in the world could possibly be done. Finally, an elegant solution should be shown that reduces the problem to multiplication, and the use of variables highlighted (let S be the sum of these numbers, even though we don't know what it is…). And then the problem can be extended to a general sum of the first few integers, sums of squares, and so on.
2. They should be exposed to problems that cannot be solved with any technique they know but will foreshadow their education in future classes.
When students are learning about the slope of a linear function, they must be encouraged to wonder how one could reason about the steepness of nonlinear things. For it's obvious that some nonlinear functions are steeper than others at different places, but how can we use a single number to compare them like we do for slopes of lines? The answer is that we cannot! The "correct" way is to invent calculus, but of course the calculus way of doing it involves extending the usual notion of slopes of lines by taking limits. The students will not know this, nor will they find it out by the end of their algebra class, but it should linger in their minds as a motivating question: there are always more unanswered questions! What about the "steepness" of surfaces? Can we talk about the "steepness" of time? Students should readily ask and be asked such intriguing questions (again, this is generalization at work). The fascinating anecdote is that educators are forced to do this, but rather than have their students wonder about steepness of curves, they make them memorize the form of a "difference quotient" with little indication of why, other than that "it will be useful later." Seeing the solution before they even hear the problem? It's completely backwards!
3. They should be asked obvious technical questions that appear not to have any technique at all.
For example, they might be asked the difficult question: is $ \pi$ a rational number? Indeed, this is an extremely natural question to ask, since $ \pi$ is defined to be a ratio of two numbers: the circumference and diameter of a circle. But despite the fact that there are many proofs using a variety of techniques, almost all proofs that $ \pi$ is irrational are beyond the abilities of high school students to follow and not even familiar to the average college math major. I certainly couldn't prove it off the top of my head. This is quite different than the previous kind of problem, because there it was obvious that you can reason about the steepness of nonlinear functions, the students just don't know how to formulate it rigorously. But here, the rigorous question is understood (can $ \pi$ be represented as a quotient of integers) but it's unclear whether the problem is easy or hard to solve, and it turns out to be hard.
4. They should be exposed to problems that NOBODY knows how to solve.
When students learn about rational numbers (and if they know about $ e$, which I doubt they should before calculus but I'll use it in my example anyway), they could be asked whether $ \pi + e$ is rational. This is an open problem in mathematics. If they're learning about prime numbers, they should be asked whether every positive integer can be written as a sum of two primes. Every even positive integer? Every even integer greater than 2? And so they go through the process of refining "stupid" questions (with obvious "no" answers) into deep open conjectures. And then it can be connected to other ideas: can an algorithm answer this question? How long might it take? Can we try to correspond integers to something else? Can we give an approximation argument? There are so many simple open problems in number theory that it baffles me that many students are never exposed to them.
The point of all this is that mathematics, and mathematical problem solving skills, are not just about picking the right tool from the set of tools you've been taught. It's about recognizing when any tool you've ever heard of even applies! More deeply, it's about debating with your colleagues that problems can and cannot be solved using certain methods, and giving principled reasons why you think so. This sounds like "modeling," and indeed the strategies used for modeling also apply to pure mathematics, a fact that most people don't realize. Critical thinking and mathematical problem solving is more akin to art and debate than to mechanical computation. And the most interesting problems are the most natural questions one could ask, not the contrived "compute the volume of an oddly shaped wine glass" questions. Those are busy work questions, not open for discussion and interpretation. And the students know it.
Why This Matters
A reasonable objection to my rant goes as follows: why does it matter that the Common Core isn't super clear about these "big ideas" I'm claiming are so central? If the teachers are knowledgeable they'll know what is important and what isn't important, and how to teach the material in the manner that best promotes learning.
The problem is one of intention and misdirection. If the teachers are not rock-solid in their own understanding, then this Common Core, promoted by The World's Leading Education Experts, can easily narrow their teaching to just what's in the Core. More disturbing are the people who don't know mathematics well, the principals, policy makers, and standardized test writers who really take these guidelines at face level. Even if a teacher has a good reason to favor one area like modeling over memorizing facts about hyperbolas, they will be met with the same kind of obtuse opposition by administrators seeking short term business goals. The standards exist, one might argue, to explain to these people (the people who wouldn't know mathematical reasoning if it hit them in the face) that the teachers are teaching ideas much deeper than the rules of matrix multiplication. The Common Core represents this adequately with regards to modeling, but little else.
The Common Core also claims that the standards should be separated from specific curriculum and pedagogy, and one would reasonably argue that what I'm presenting here is pedagogy, not standards. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with this, it still remains that the Common Core is designed to influence curriculum and pedagogy. And so even if the Common Core must have "facts" as standards, if it fails to emphasize the deep ideas underlying the factual obligations then it fails to influence pedagogy in the right way. In doing so, it reinforces obviously bad practices like teaching to the test.
The important thing to realize is that the correct pedagogy is already basically known: from a young age students should explore and reason and puzzle without horse blinders. Sometimes there are some dry factual things they cannot escape, but such is true of everything. So the separation of mathematical church and state (pedagogy and standards) claimed by the Common Core seems to be entirely a political one. It would infringe on the freedom of the teachers to impose pedagogical constraints, especially ones that only work for some environments. If this necessarily causes deficiencies of a global set of standards, then it is simply the wrong approach.
Again, I cannot say for sure whether the writers of the standard don't understand the mathematics well enough, and it would be pointlessly arrogant to imply my own superiority. I hate to think it's a bureaucracy issue, and that the designers felt the only progress they could make was to emphasize modeling as well as they did. If this is the truth then it is a sad one, because where I and many of the teachers sit, our country is stuck with the results.
We don't need more compartmentalization by subject and grade. We do need a recognition of the deep critical thinking skills we want to teach. "Abstract reasoning" is not a specific enough goal to warrant policy. We need to admit to our teachers and our students exactly what we're trying to get them to learn. And then we can organize education based on increasingly sophisticated applications of those ideas, to thinking about shapes, numbers, modeling, to whatever you want. Then students won't forget about counting as "matching" after kindergarten ends, or only consider approximations related to irrational numbers. They will instead see these ideas blossom over time into the mental Swiss Army knives that they are. And they will use these ideas as a foundation to acquire whatever factual knowledge they might need to succeed in their careers.


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Bullenwächter was born in Lindau im Bodensee (Lake Constance) now living in Halstenbek near Hamburg in Northern Germany. His hobbies are motorcycling, beekeeping and reeanctment of an Alamannic warrior (5th and early 7th century) a Germanic warrior (1st century), the neolithic and hallstatt period. In case of any questions please send him an E-mail or refer to his German or English page.
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"It is the most interesting book I have ever read and inspires me to do something immediate to save our civilization." —Hanh Lien, translator for the Vietnamese edition of World on the Edge
Chapter 10. Redefining Security: A Complex Challenge
When grain harvests fell short, stocks declined, and prices rose during the last half of the twentieth century, there was a standard response. At the official level, the U.S. government would return to production part or all of the cropland idled under its commodity set-aside programs. At the same time, higher prices would encourage farmers worldwide to use more fertilizer, drill more irrigation wells, and invest in other yield-enhancing measures. Production would jump and shortages would disappear. 27
Now the possible responses to shortages are more demanding. First, the U.S. cropland set-aside program was dismantled in 1996, depriving the world of this long-standing backup reserve for world grain stocks. As of 2004, only the European Union is holding cropland out of use to limit production, but it is a small area, perhaps 3 million hectares. The United States does have some 14 million hectares (35 million acres) of cropland, much of it highly erodible, in the Conservation Reserve Program under 10-year contracts with farmers, nearly all planted in grass. In an emergency, part of it could be plowed and planted in grain, but it is mostly low-rainfall, low-yielding land in the Great Plains that would expand the U.S. harvest only marginally. 28
The world today faces a situation far different from that of half a century ago. Diminishing returns are setting in on several fronts, including the quality of new land that can be brought under the plow, the production response to additional fertilizer applications, the opportunity for drilling new irrigation wells, and the potential of research investments to produce technologies that will boost production dramatically.
In 1950, opportunities for expanding the cultivated area were already limited, but there were still some to be found here and there. Together they helped expand the world grainland area by roughly one fifth. Today, in contrast, the only country that has the potential to increase the world grainland area measurably is Brazil. And doing this would raise numerous environmental questions, ranging from soil erosion to decreased carbon sequestration in the plowed areas. 29
A half-century ago, every country in the world could anticipate using much more fertilizer. Today, using more fertilizer has little effect on production in many countries. And a half-century ago, the use of underground water for irrigation was almost nonexistent. Vast aquifers were waiting to be tapped, yielding a sustainable supply of irrigation water. Today, drilling more irrigation wells is likely only to hasten the depletion of aquifers and a resulting drop in food production.
Diminishing returns also affect agricultural research. Fifty years ago agricultural scientists were just beginning to adapt the high-yielding dwarf wheats and rices and the hybrid corn to widely varying growing conditions around the world. Today the plant breeding focus has shifted from raising yields to using biotechnology to develop varieties that are insect-resistant or herbicide-tolerant. Plant breeding advances may still raise yields 5 percent here or perhaps 15 percent there, but the potential for dramatic gains appears limited. 30
The world has changed in other ways. As world population and the global economy expanded dramatically over the last half-century, the world quietly moved into a new era, one in which the economy began pressing against the earth's natural limits. In this new situation, activities in one economic sector can affect another. Historically, for example, what happened in the transport sector had little effect on agriculture. But in a world with 6.3 billion people, most of whom would like to own a car, auto-centered transport systems will consume a vast area of cropland. 31
In the societies that first turned to cars as the principal means of transportation, there was no need for the transportation minister to consult with the agriculture minister. During the earlier development of the United States, for example, there was more than enough land for crops and cars. Indeed, throughout much of this era farmers were paid to hold land out of production. Now that has changed. Food security is directly affected by transportation policy today.
If densely populated countries like China and India turn to cars as the primary means of transportation, they will pit affluent automobile owners against low-income food consumers in the competition for land. These nations simply do not have enough land to support hundreds of millions of cars and to feed their people.
The competition between cars and people for resources does not stop here. Some key food-producing countries, including the United States, are producing ethanol from grain for automotive fuel. In 2004, the United States used some 30 million tons of its 278-million-ton corn harvest to manufacture ethanol for cars. This tonnage, requiring nearly 4 million hectares (10 million acres) to produce, would be enough to feed 100 million people at average world consumption levels. Other countries building grain-fed ethanol plants include Canada and China. The competition between affluent motorists and low-income food consumers is thus not only for the land used to produce food, but also for the food itself. 32
The other side of this coin is that if grain prices rise sharply, ethanol plants are likely to close, as they did in 1996 when grain prices went up temporarily. This would free up grain for food or feed, thus providing an additional buffer when world grain supplies tighten. 33
The loss of momentum on the food front in recent years argues for reassessing the global population trajectory. Indeed, population policymakers may hold the key to achieving a humane balance between population and food. We can no longer take population projections as a given. The world cannot afford for any women to be without family planning advice and contraceptives. Today, however, an estimated 137 million women want to limit the size of their families but lack access to the family planning services needed to do so. Eradicating hunger depends on filling the family planning gap and creating the social conditions that will accelerate the shift to smaller families. 34
Food security is affected not only by the food-population equation, but also by the water-population equation and the efforts of water resource ministries to raise water productivity. Indeed, since 70 percent of world water use is for irrigation, eradicating hunger may now depend on a global full-court press to raise water productivity. Everyone knows it takes water to produce food, but we often do not realize how water-intensive food production is and how quickly water shortages can translate into food shortages. The ministry of health and family planning needs to cooperate not only with the ministry of agriculture but also with the ministry of water resources. Those living in land-hungry, water-short countries need to know how their childbearing decisions will affect the next generation's access to water and to food. 35
It is perhaps indicative of the complexity of the times in which we live that decisions on energy development made in ministries of energy may have a greater effect on the earth's temperature, and hence future food security, than decisions made in ministries of agriculture. Even so, ministers of energy are rarely involved in food security planning.
Ensuring future food security therefore can no longer be left to ministries of agriculture alone. Food security is now directly dependent on policy decisions in the ministries of health and family planning, water resources, transportation, and energy. This dependence of food security on an integrated effort by several departments of government is new. And because it has emerged so quickly, governments are lagging far behind in their efforts to coordinate these departments and their agendas.
One of the essentials for success in this new situation is strong national political leaders. In the absence of competent leaders who understand the complex interaction of these issues, the cooperation needed to ensure a country's future food security may simply not be forthcoming. In the absence of such leadership, a deterioration in the food situation may be unavoidable.
The integration that is needed across the ministries of government is also called for at the international level. Unfortunately, there may be even less contact among the relevant U.N. agencies such as FAO, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) than there is within national ministries. There is no independent water resources agency, nor is there a U.N. agency responsible for transportation. The three U.N. agencies that particularly need to work closely together are FAO, UNFPA, and UNEP.
At another level, the world needs more sophisticated agricultural supply and demand projections. At present, whether they come from FAO, the World Bank, or the USDA, these are largely done by agricultural economists. In a situation where water supplies and temperature levels may have a greater effect on food production in some countries than advancing agricultural technology does, meaningful projections require inputs not only from economists but also from hydrologists, meteorologists, and agronomists.
There is a remarkable lack of data on the status of the world's underground water resources. Few countries systematically gather and report data on changes in water table levels. Even fewer data are available on the thickness of aquifers. And there are almost no projections that tell us when aquifer depletion is likely to occur.
Aside from China, the other big question mark hanging over the world food prospect is Brazil—the most important question being how much of its potential for expanding food production it plans to exploit. Is Brazil prepared to plow the 75 million hectares of the cerrado that is believed to be cultivable? Or does it want to preserve part of this land to protect the region's diversity of wildlife and perhaps its rainfall patterns as well? How much of the Amazon is Brazil prepared to clear for agriculture, either for cattle grazing or for crops? What Brazil decides to do in terms of converting the cerrado or the Amazon rainforest into cropland and rangeland is directly related to the formulation of population policies in scores of countries. How much should individual countries invest in small-scale water catchment storage, for example? How rigorously should they protect their cropland from conversion to nonfarm uses? 36
In a world that is increasingly integrated economically, food security is now a global issue. In an integrated world grain market, everyone is affected by the same price shifts. A doubling of grain prices, which is a distinct possibility if we cannot accelerate the growth in grain production, could impoverish more people and destabilize more governments than any event in history. Our future depends on working together to avoid a destabilizing jump in world food prices. Everyone has a stake in stabilizing the agricultural resource base. Everyone has a stake in securing future food supplies. We all have a responsibility to work for the policies—whether in agriculture, energy, population, water use, cropland protection, or soil conservation—that will help ensure future world food security.
The complexity of the challenges the world is facing is matched by the enormity of the effort required to reverse the trends that are undermining future food security. Halting the advancing deserts in China, arresting the fall in water tables in India, and reversing the rise in carbon emissions in the United States are each essential to future world food security. Each will require a strong, new initiative—one that demands a wartime sense of urgency and leadership.
We have inherited the mindset, policies, and fiscal priorities from an era of food security that no longer exists. The policies that once provided food security will no longer suffice in a world where we are pressing against the sustainable yields of oceanic fisheries and underground aquifers and the limits of nature to fix carbon dioxide. Unless we recognize the nature of the era we are entering and adopt new policies and priorities that recognize the earth's natural limits, world food security could begin to deteriorate. If it does, food security could quickly eclipse terrorism as the overriding concern of governments.
27. U.S. farm program from USDA, Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators 1996–97 (Washington, DC: July 1997), pp. 255–327.
28. European percent total cropland reserve is author's estimate based on official 10-percent reserve allowance in European Union's Common Agricultural Policy; Conservation Reserve Program from USDA, Economic Research Service, Agri-Environmental Policy at the Crossroads: Guideposts on a Changing Landscape, Agricultural Economic Report No. 794 (Washington, DC: January 2001), p. 16.
29. Grainland expansion from USDA, op. cit. note 1, and from historical data in Worldwatch Institute, Signposts 2002, CD-Rom (Washington, DC: 2002).
30. For more information on plant breeding, see Chapter 4.
31. Lester R. Brown, "Paving the Planet: Cars and Crops Competing for Land," Eco-Economy Update (Washington, DC: Earth Policy Institute, 14 February 2001); population from United Nations, op. cit. note 3.
32. Lonnie Ingram, "Grand Challenge for Renewable Energy from Biomass," Florida Center for Renewables, at fcrc.ifas.ufl.edu/LOI%20Message.htm, viewed 23 September 2004; food-population equivalent is author's calculation based on world grain production from USDA, op. cit. note 1, and on world population from United Nations, op. cit. note 3.
33. Prices from IMF, op. cit. note 2; relationship between ethanol production and prices in Joseph DiPardo, Outlook for Biomass Ethanol Production and Demand (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, July 2000), p. 4.
34. U.N. Population Fund, State of World Population 2004 (New York: 2004), p. 7.
35. Water use from Peter H. Gleick, The World's Water 2000–2001 (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000), p. 52.
36. Potential cerrado cultivatable area from Marty McVey, Phil Baumel, and Bob Wisner, "Brazilian Soybeans—What is the Potential?" AgDM Newsletter, October 2000.
Copyright © 2004 Earth Policy Institute


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Inspectors from the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have finally arrived in Douma, Syria, to assess whether a gas attack took place earlier this month. It has taken a week for the inspectors to begin their work, as charges were thrown back and forth about who was causing the delay.
Proponents of the US and UK position that Assad used gas in Douma have argued that the Syrian and Russian governments are preventing the OPCW inspectors from doing their work. That, they claim, is all the evidence needed to demonstrate that Assad and Putin have something to hide. But it seems strange that if Syria and Russia wanted to prevent an OPCW inspection of the alleged sites they would have been the ones to request the inspection in the first place.
The dispute was solved just days ago, as the OPCW Director-General released a statement explaining that the delay was due to UN security office concerns for the safety of the inspectors.
We are told that even after the OPCW inspectors collect samples from the alleged attack sites, it will take weeks to determine whether there was any gas or other chemicals released. That means there is very little chance President Trump had "slam dunk" evidence that Assad used gas in Douma earlier this month when he decided to launch a military attack on Syria. To date, the US has presented no evidence of who was responsible or even whether an attack took place at all. Even right up to the US missile strike, Defense Secretary Mattis said he was still looking for evidence.
In a Tweet just days ago, Rep. Thomas Massie expressed frustration that in a briefing to Congress last week the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense "provided zero real evidence" that Assad carried out the attack. Either they have it and won't share it with Congress, he wrote, or they have nothing. Either way, he added, it's not good.
We should share Rep. Massie's concerns.
US and French authorities have suggested that videos shared on the Internet by the US-funded White Helmets organization were sufficient proof of the attack. If social media postings are these days considered definitive intelligence, why are we still spending $100 billion a year on our massive intelligence community? Maybe it would be cheaper to just hire a few teenagers to scour YouTube?
Even if Assad had gassed his people earlier this month there still would have been no legal justification for the US to fire 100 or so missiles into the country. Of course such a deed would deserve condemnation from all civilized people, but Washington's outrage is very selective and often politically motivated. Where is the outrage over Saudi Arabia's horrific three-year war against Yemen? Those horrors are ignored because Saudi Arabia is considered an ally and thus above reproach.
We are not the policemen of the world. Bad leaders do bad things to their people all the time. That's true even in the US, where our own government steadily chips away at our Constitution by setting up a surveillance state.
We have neither the money nor the authority to launch bombs when we suspect someone has done something wrong overseas. A hasty decision to use force is foolish and dangerous. As Western journalists reporting from Douma are raising big questions about the official US story of the so-called gas attack, Trump's inclination to shoot first and ask questions later may prove to be his downfall.
Source: Unz
Our commenting rules: You can say pretty much anything except the F word. If you are abusive, obscene, or a paid troll, we will ban you. Full statement from the Editor, Charles Bausman.
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The Secret Beyond Matter
A Call for a Turkish-Islamic Union
The Bright Future Awaiting the World
Throughout this book, we have examined the situation of the Turkish-Islamic world, the urgent need for creating the Turkish Islamic Union, and the resulting benefits of it for Muslims and other nations alike. As we saw in the previous chapter, recent developments clearly show that the Islamic world is ripe for great and fundamental change. The Qur'an and the hadith literature suggest that the approaching period will be a bright one for the world's Muslims, Allah willing. Setting up the Turkish Islamic Union will speed up the process and begin a new era of plenty and prosperity for humanity in general.
The current situation may seem to be very negative at first look, whereas in reality each negative development signals the approach of a blessed period. War, destitution, famine, oppression, and tyranny against Muslims across the world are signs of the End Times foretold by our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). That all of these events are taking place is also a clear sign that the global rule of Islamic morality is approaching, as prophesized by our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) (Allah knows the truth). Therefore, the current situation must not cause Muslims to feel despair and hopelessness; on the contrary, it should motivate them and increase their zeal and excitement. In addition, they must act with the awareness that despairing of solace from Allah is not an option, for
Do not despair of solace from Allah. No one despairs of solace from Allah except for people who disbelieve. (Surah Yusuf: 87)
The great scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi explained, in his famous the Damascus Sermon (Hutbe-i Samiye), the conditions in which Muslims live, warned of the dangers of falling into despair, and spoke of the bright future awaiting them, as follows:
Despair is the most detrimental sickness. It has permeated into the heart of the Islamic world... Such a despair that it has stifled our sublime morality, swerving our attention from the interests of the general to our personal interests. It is the very same despair that has broken our spiritual might... Despair is the most dreadful sickness of our people... It is the pretext of the coward, the inferior and the helpless... It is only Islam which will truly and spiritually pervade the continents of the future and lead humanity to bliss both in this world and the next.58
The End Times
The hadith literature is the foremost source that reveals the Islamic world's bright future. This literature, which describes in great detail the nature of the End Times (the period before the Last Day), reveals that these signs bear a great resemblance to hundreds of events taking place right now. Some of the most prominent signs of the appearance of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) are that people seek to distance themselves from the purpose of their Creation and, consequently, participate in society's spiritual break-down by altering Allah's law, openly denying Allah's existence, spreading disorder around the world, and increasing decadence. Other signs include frequent natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and floods, droughts and famines); increasing warfare, conflict, and bloodshed; emergence of bid'ats (innovation, changing the original teaching of the Prophet); widespread poverty; astonishing and shocking events; and the almost complete disappearance of contentment and stability. In the End Times, murder, killing, and fighting will intensify, and the oppression of Muslims will worsen. In addition, Muslims living during this time will be subjected to such violence and tyranny that most of them will not be able to find a way out of the cruel environment in which they live.
Following this difficult and disordered period, Allah will send a holy savior, the Mahdi (one who guides to the righteous path), who will deliver people from the darkness of ignorance into the light of true knowledge. This blessed person will first enlighten the Islamic world and then bring peace, love, and morality to the entire world. With his arrival, all anti-religious ideologies that deny Allah's existence will be completely refuted, religious morality will be returned to its original pure state, as revealed by the Qur'an and the hadiths, and the Islamic world will gain economic, political, and social power.
The hadiths also reveal that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return to Earth during the End Times. His second coming is one of the greatest events of the End Times, and is revealed by a number of hadiths and many Qur'anic verses. Allah reveals in the Qur'an that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) was not killed or crucified, but that He caused the people to see it that way, and then raised him to His Presence. (For further information, please see Harun Yahya, Jesus Will Return [London: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 2001]). This fact is revealed in Surat an-Nisa':
And [on account of] their saying: "We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Maryam, Messenger of Allah." They did not kill him and they did not crucify him, but it was made to seem so to them. Those who argue about him are in doubt about it. They have no real knowledge of it, just conjecture. But they certainly did not kill him. Allah raised him up to Himself. Allah is Almighty, All-Wise. (Surat an-Nisa': 157-158)
When the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) returns, he will be recognized by his respectability, honor, and superiority, just like all of the other prophets were. Those who see him will recognize him instantaneously and have no doubt in their hearts. One factor that will make him known is his lack of relatives, family, and anyone who knows him from before. No one will know him by his voice, physical appearance, or face on his return. No one will be able to say: "I know him from before," because everyone who knew him will have lived and died 2,000 years ago.
When the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) returns, he will rule by the Qur'an. He will free Christians from their myths and invite them to live by the Qur'an's values. This way, Islam and Christianity will unite into one faith, and the world will enter a new golden era in which peace, happiness, security, contentment, and prosperity rule. The Golden Age, like the time of our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), will be a blessed period characterized by justice instead of cruelty. There will be so much prosperity that people who want to give alms to the poor will not be able to find anyone to accept them. Developments in science and technology will raise the quality of life, and goodness and comfort will increase. Wherever they turn, people will see prosperity and beauty.
Some of the Prophet's (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) hadiths on the End Times are listed below.
Calling on the World of Islam
At present, irreligious systems of thought are collapsing around the world and people are turning to faith and religious morality. Furthermore, Islam has become the most important subject on the world's agenda, and people's attention has turned toward the true religion. Our time's technological development has made intra-Muslim cooperation easier, and have created the opportunity to convey the beauty of Islamic morality to the masses.
However, parts of the Islamic world still suffer from poverty and ignorance. People who take advantage of this situation act in the name of Islam, but contrary to Islam, and thereby make Muslims accused in the eyes of the world. Circles who oppose Islamic morality use the Muslims' present weakness and disorder to oppress them and plan even worse tyranny. The solution to the Islamic world's ongoing tension and conflict, both internal and external, lies in forming a Turkish Islamic Union that will unite all Muslims and guide them to the right path. Therefore, every Muslim must work for its creation.
All Muslim governments should prepare for the Turkish Islamic Union by developing their relations with other Muslim countries and organizing cultural activities that will help establish true Islamic morality in their countries. All Muslim NGOs, associations, charities, members of the media, and intellectual leaders should make genuine efforts to resolve the differences between Muslims and to achieve unity and solidarity. All Muslims should work to create this Islamic unity, regardless of the mosque or school they attend, the Internet sites that they visit, and the charities or associations to which they belong. Moreover, they must encourage other Muslims to follow their example.
It is the prayer of all Muslims that the great Islamic civilization, one that will bring goodness, justice, and peace to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, will flourish once more. Allah willing, the formation of the Turkish Islamic Union will bring all of this about.
All Muslims who wish to play a role in this holy duty should make the following prayer and then act upon it:
Let's not forget Allah's command:
Hold fast to the rope of Allah all together, and do not separate. Remember Allah's blessing to you when you were enemies and He joined your hearts together so that you became brothers by His blessing. You were on the very brink of a pit of the Fire and He rescued you from it. In this way, Allah makes His Signs clear to you so that, hopefully, you will be guided. (Surah Al 'Imran: 103)
They said "Glory be to You!
58. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Hutbe-i Samiye (Damascus Sermon).
59. Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi `Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, 66.
60. Ibid., 12.
61. Mukhtasar Tazkirah Qurtubi, 440.
62. Ibn Hajar Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntazar, 23.
63. Ibid., 39.
64. Ibid., 37.
65. Ibid.
66. Sunan Ibn Majah.
67. Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar, 43.
68. Sahih Muslim.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar, 36.
71. Sunan Ibn Majah.
72. Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar, 23.


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Expert: Rural US websites easy target for hackers
(AP) -- The digital trove of credit card numbers and emails stolen by the group known as Anonymous came from towns across rural America - places like Gassville, Ark. and Tishomingo County, Miss., where officers don't usually have to worry about international hackers.
That may have made them an easy score.
The loosely-knit hacking collective said Saturday that it attacked 70 mostly rural law enforcement websites in the United States in retaliation for the arrests of its sympathizers. Some county sheriffs said they were told about the hacking, but others appeared to learn of the scope of what had happened only when contacted by The Associated Press.
Web security experts said the cyberattack shows that no website is too small to avoid hacking, especially as more law enforcement agencies upload sensitive information about investigations, inmates and officers to their sites.
"It seems to me to be low-hanging fruit," said Dick Mackey, vice president of consulting at Sudbury, Mass.-based SystemExperts. "The smaller the organization, the more likely that they don't think of themselves as potential targets. They're not going to have the protections in place that a larger organization will have."
Many of the sheriff's offices outsourced their websites to the same Mountain Home, Ark.-based media hosting company, Brooks-Jeffrey Marketing. If Brooks-Jeffrey's defenses were breached, that would give hackers access to every website the company hosted, said Kevin Mitnick, a security consultant and former hacker.
Brooks-Jeffrey declined to comment.
Most of the sheriffs' department sites, if not all, were either unavailable for most of Saturday or had been wiped clean of content. Some had started to reappear online Saturday evening.
The emails were mainly from sheriffs' offices in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi. Many of the leaked emails appeared to be benign, but some of the stolen material seen by the AP carried sensitive information, including tips about suspected crimes, profiles of gang members and security training. At least one email had material - including pictures of teenage girls in their swimsuits - that Tim Mayfield, the police chief in Gassville, Ark., said was sent to him as part of an ongoing investigation. Mayfield declined to provide more details.
In another email that Anonymous posted, a police tipster wrote that his uncle was a convicted sexual offender who was homeless and hanging around an area Walmart and other places where children were. Another tipster wrote to police that she and her neighbors could smell drugs coming from a house.
The leaked information also included five credit card numbers Anonymous said were used to make "involuntary donations." At least four of the names and other personal details appeared to be genuine. One person confirmed to the AP that his credit card had been used improperly.
In a statement, Anonymous said it leaked "a massive amount of confidential information that is sure to (embarrass), discredit and incriminate police officers across the US." The group said it hopes its disclosures would "demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words" and "disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities."
The group did not say specifically why these sheriffs' departments were targeted, but Anonymous members have increasingly been pursued by law enforcement in the United States and elsewhere following a string of high-profile data thefts and denial of service attacks - operations that block websites by flooding them with traffic. FBI spokesman Steve Frazier did not return several messages Saturday seeking comment on the latest cyberattack.
The group celebrated its success in several messages posted Saturday to Twitter and hinted that more attacks were to come. In one tweet, it poked fun at local sheriffs: "Time to wake up, boys."
Small agencies often need to do more to protect themselves, even if they don't have as much staff or money as larger cities, Mackey said. One major step is demanding better security from the companies that host their sites.
"I think it behooves anyone who stores sensitive information to basically put the pressure on the vendors who create their websites to do a good job of protecting those sites," Mackey said.
Many sheriffs said they weren't using their sites to store Social Security numbers or other highly sensitive data. John Montgomery, sheriff of Baxter County in northern Arkansas, where Brooks-Jeffrey is located, said his department's website has been used in the past to help track down suspects and get information to the public.
"We are going to continue using the Web," said Montgomery, whose website was taken down. "Are we going to have to be smarter in how we use the Web as far as security? Sure. We'll have to look closely at the security measures that go into place."
Montgomery said the department would also check its internal servers for any weaknesses, and he encouraged other county sheriffs to do the same.
©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Individually, some are great. I'd even count one of them as a friend. But as a party I cannot stand the bloody Liberal Democrats, and the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election reminded me why.
The LibDems will be quite pleased with their performance last Thursday. As the spotlight was on the other parties, their vote quietly put on five percentage points, the deposit was saved, and they recaptured some of the support lost since 2015. The Wheatsheaf Hotel was their base in Stoke, which was perhaps a little too from the beaten track for many London journos to find. And, by the sounds of it, "celebrity" LibDems as well. Fresh from her triumph in Richmond, Sarah Olney was on hand and, well, that was about it. Oh yes, Tim Farron slid his way briefly into the constituency for a photo opp before a rapid, frictionless exit. They were never contenders, and having selected Dr Zulfiqar Ali - one of the few politicians to have lost more elections than Nigel Farage - they knew it too.
Their campaign was the typical, disingenuous campaign you could expect. I don't know if they bothered canvassing much but the leaflets, the leaflets. Next to me on the sofa are nine different pieces that made it through my letter box. Because we had a Labour poster in the window, perhaps their activists thought they were trolling me. Well, I'm biting. Letter one was from Adam Carter, a winner of a council seat from Labour in Rotherham. The message? Labour's taken you for granted so vote for us. Leaflet two, a Focus-style affair slamming Labour chaos and saying Britain needs a real opposition to stand up to the Conservatives. Yes, just like the LibDems did. Leaflet three, a faux letter from the candidate saying Stoke had been let down too long. A true museum piece this one - a doctor's note with legible handwriting. Fourth, an A3 sized colour leaflet pledging that the LibDems will fight for jobs, protect the NHS and end neglect. The thrust, again, is another attack on Labour with the Tories and UKIP bolted on as an afterthought. Fifth, another colour leaflet of a similar size attacking Labour for backing a UKIP-style hard Brexit. Six, a piece attacking Labour and UKIP for not standing up for the NHS and attacking Labour for its "botched PFI deals". If only the LibDems had been in a position to do something about them during the last six years. A nice little detail here is one side is red and purple, the other is yellow and the cross in the ballot cross next to Zulfiqar Ali is blue. Subtle. Seven, the real Focus deal itself promising that Dr Ali would deliver "real change" (interestingly, this was only posted out to Shelton, Hanley, University and Etruria - of which more shortly). Eight, their tabloid, Stoke-on-Trent News with a front page opposing the super local Zulfiqar Ali to the "UKIP candidate from Liverpool". They couldn't even bring themselves to name him. And lastly came the Take a Break-stylee Potteries Life. If you were in any doubt about Zulfiqar Ali's Stokie creds, the cover promised "true life tales from Stoke" and "Why I love living in Stoke: Dr Ali's Story". The political content was as thin as their principles but, again, it is Labour who were the main target.
This begs the question. How Labour can possibly enter into a so-called "progressive alliance" with such a scabby outfit? With UKIP hyped up to be a huge threat and all the calamitous consequences that a win would have entailed, could they please explain to folks interested in such an arrangement a) why in the face of blackest reaction the party's messaging was predominantly anti-Labour and b) why their campaigning efforts were concentrated around the student districts. We know why: talk of a progressive alliance is but a convenient fig leaf for them and their cheerleaders in the liberal press. It's something for people in Labour to fret about publicly, folks who should really know better like Lisa Nandy and Clive Lewis, but similar expectations aren't placed on the yellow party to show any serious intent in this direction. I'll also note in the Stoke case that their underhandedness went even further. It is my understanding that sundry LibDems went around the mosques saying Gareth Snell isn't interested in looking after Muslims or Asians, they need one of their own to do it. As they raised merry hell when a bunch of messages were texted to local Muslims threatening them with damnation if they didn't vote Labour, they clearly don't like it when someone tries playing their shitty little games against them.
And that is the Liberal Democrats. Rather than stand up to reaction, they tried undermining the one force opposing it. Rather than hit UKIP and attack the government, they concentrate their fire on Labour. While Nuttall and his helpers in the press play the politics of community division, they dilly-dally with it themselves. This was not an election campaign for them, it was an attempt to mug the Labour Party and damn the consequences. There is nothing liberal or democratic about this. It's rank opportunism.


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North Central College vice president Laurie Hamen named president of Mount Mercy University
Dec 06, 2013
Laurie Hamen, North Central College vice president for enrollment management, athletics and student affairs, will become the ninth president of Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Hamen, 54, of River Forest, has been an administrator at North Central College since 1996 and a vice president since 1999. Under her leadership the College's enrollment increased 100 percent to 2,700 undergraduates and the number of students living on campus increased 50 percent to 1,500 residents.
"My work at North Central College has provided me with considerable experience that will be directly applicable to the work I will do as president of Mount Mercy University," Hamen said. "Like North Central, Mount Mercy is a comprehensive liberal arts institution that additionally concerns itself with civic engagement, professional education and a sense of place in the community."
Hamen's initiatives at North Central have impacted many aspects of the College, including student recruitment and retention, Division III athletics, financial aid, expanded health services and enrollment of minority students, international students and others.
"North Central College's successes on so many fronts—its lively campus life, athletic achievements, enrollment growth, opportunities for student leadership and attractive housing options—are the result of Laurie's vision," North Central College President Troy D. Hammond said. "She wanted to ensure that every student had the opportunity to enjoy an engaged and well-rounded college experience. She also mentored a generation of student affairs professionals who have succeeded at North Central and other institutions across the country."
Hamen also served as North Central's vice president for student affairs and dean of students from 1999 to 2002 and as dean of students from 1996 to 1999. During her 17 years at North Central she supervised the implementation of numerous initiatives, including expanded services for student veterans, the grant-funded Teach First program to assist first-generation college students who aspire to become educators, hiring of nonteaching graduate assistants and an English Language Institute designed to serve international students.
"Mount Mercy University will no doubt benefit from Laurie Hamen's considerable talents and expertise in higher education leadership," said Barbara A. Barhamand of Naperville, vice chair of Mount Mercy University's Board of Trustees. "As a Naperville resident I've seen firsthand the success North Central has experienced in recent years, and I'm confident Laurie's administrative capabilities will help strengthen our institution, grow and diversify our enrollment and expand services available to students."
During Hamen's oversight of North Central's athletic programs the College won eight of its 30 team national championships, 24 of its 117 individual national championships, 206 individual Academic All-American honors and 30 Academic All-American Team Awards. She also introduced important athletic leadership and faculty mentor programs that embody the NCAA Division III philosophy.
"Laurie Hamen's impact on North Central College over the past 17 years has been incredible, and I'm confident she will bring the same energy, vision and integrity to leadership of Mount Mercy," said Harold R. Wilde, North Central College president emeritus. "She will be a great college president—able to see the big picture, witness for the values of the institution and know every student's name."
Mount Mercy University is a fully accredited, private, co-ed, Catholic institution founded in 1928 by the Sisters of Mercy. Mount Mercy offers baccalaureate and graduate education to nearly 1,800 enrolled students and uniquely blends liberal arts education with professional preparation. The school was formerly known as Mount Mercy College.
"Laurie was selected as our next president after a nationwide search that concluded with her making an official visit to the Mount Mercy campus last month," said Mount Mercy University Board of Trustees Chairman Brandt Worley. "Her passion for private liberal arts education and the Mercy Mission was clear and evident to the entire Mount Mercy community, and we are delighted she has accepted the position."
Prior to coming to North Central, Hamen was dean of students at the College of St. Benedict in Saint Joseph, Minn. She also previously served as associate dean of students at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minn.; director of activities at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Miss.; and assistant complex director at Mankato State University in Mankato, Minn.
Hamen earned a juris doctor from DePaul University in Chicago; pursued doctoral coursework in educational administration at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn.; holds a master of science in counselor education/professional development from Winona State University in Winona, Minn.; and a bachelor of arts in home economics from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn. She lives in River Forest with her husband Bill and is the mother of three adult children and grandmother of two.
Hamen was introduced to the Mount Mercy University campus community during an event on Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. She is scheduled to assume the presidency in early 2014.


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Got a reader and/or writer on your Christmas list? Take advantage of Cyber-Monday with these unique offerings for your favorite nerd. And I mean that in the most loving way possible, of course.
10. Favorite Writer's Coasters
Even first-class swillers like the infamous… indulgers… Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Bukowski didn't want nasty water rings left on their bedside table. Honor their memories and wishes with these snazzy coasters from Retrowhale and take advantage of 15% off your order, today only. Use order code Retro77.
9. Big Books Tote Bag
Make Sir Mix-a-lot proud and your children cringe with this bag from Pamela Fugate Designs. Free shipping!
8. Tolkein Ring
As your favorite Tolkein geek will explain to you, the wizard Gandalf says this in The Fellowship of the Ring.
A book, a bubble bath, and wine? I'll be out around the end of February. Maybe. 10% off with the code "Cyber" at Macy's.
6. Massage Bed Rest from Brookstone
Ooohhh… Okay. It does remind me a bit of the flying chairs in the movie "Wall-E" but I'll take one. I bet any other reader you know would love it as well. Massage, place for a drink, pockets, a reading light? Yes, please. 5% off Cyber-Monday with the code Pinit5.
5. Hemingway Gift Box from Royal Palm Arts
Set includes a 6 oz stainless steel flask, a pair of shot glasses, a leather notebook, a wooden cigar caddy/pencil holder, and two pencils. Fill up the flask and throw in a couple of Cubans and you've got yourself a right manly Christmas there, my friend.
4. Demeter Fragrances: Paperback
Forget pheromones! I hope this comes in a male version. Books and manliness? Gimme. Description promises, "A trip to your favorite library or used bookstore. Sweet and lovely with just a touch of the musty smell of aged paper, Demeter's Paperback harnesses that scent with a sprinkling of violets and a dash of tasteful potpourri."
3. Scrabble: Book Lover's Edition
Gather 'round kids, where I introduce you to this concept that came, yes, BEFORE "Words With Friends." In this Scrabble edition, you get extra points for playing names of novels and authors. I'm not entirely sure why you couldn't do that on a regular Scrabble board, but hey, this one looks all library-y and stuff. Cyber-Monday deals at Amazon.
2. Literary iPhone Covers
I love these. Love them! Perhaps I'll even be persuaded to dump my 3G in order to get one. Or several. Hurry, limited editions and sadly, TKAM is already gone. At Uncommon Goods.
1. Gift Certificate for Uninterrupted Reading and/or Writing Time
While all the previous ideas are fabulous, what most readers and writers want more than anything is some unfettered time…time free of needy kids, inquiring significant others, ringing phones, knocks at the door, email… Better yet, pair this with one or more of the other gifts listed here and make your favorite bibliophile/author very happy indeed.


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|Caesar & his favorite "tug of war" toy - the purple Teletubby
The Teletubby in action...he even put up with toddler Lilly.
|This was Caesar's chair at our first house. People didn't sit in this chair, only Caesar.
It was also a prime spot to look out the window and wait for us to get home.
|Caesar didn't like to get groomed. When you brushed him, he'd playfully try to gnaw your hand off...
|...or your foot
Tortillas were his favorite food. He went nuts for them.
|What's a true Caesar without his toga and crown?
|Wanna play?
Maybe it's better that I didn't get to say goodbye.
Goodbyes are so final, and I know I'll see you again someday Caesar.
And when I do I'll bring the tortillas, I promise.
You always were my good boy.
Love ya bud.


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If you plan to put mint in your garden, be sure to keep it in a separate container - it will spread like wildfire!
Mosquitoes are incredibly common in my home state of Minnesota. Perhaps it's all the lakes and ponds — which make for great mosquito breeding grounds. Every summer it's another battle to keep these pests away. I've previously written about homemade mosquito repellent recipes, but I've recently discovered something even easier — mosquito repellent plants. There are plants that you can grow in your background that naturally repel mosquitoes. (See also: Pesky Pests: Easy Homemade Mosquito and Insect Traps and Repellent)
There is a full list of plants that repel mosquitoes here here, but below I've compiled the top plants based on price and what I call "dual purpose." That is, besides just repelling mosquitoes, these plants also either look especially nice or serve some more functional purpose. For example, planting citronella is great, but you can't do much else with it. In contrast, marigolds are beautiful flowers and several of the herbs below can also be used to cook with.
Marigold flowers are not only relatively easy to grow, they also look nice and repel mosquitoes. They look great potted, which gives the added benefit of being able to move them closer to where you are sitting. You can buy 1,000 seeds on Amazon for $4.50.
As someone lacking a green thumb, I appreciate plants that don't require much work. Thankfully, rosemary is one of those plants that I've grown in my backyard every summer for years. If you plant it in a pot, you can also bring it inside in the winter to keep your herb garden up. Rosemary is a great dual-purpose mosquito repelling plant because you can also use it to cook. (I like it with potatoes or in bread.) 100 Rosemary seeds cost just $1.79 on Amazon.
Catnip has been found by researchers to be even more effective than DEET (a neurotoxin found in most bug sprays). Like marigolds and rosemary, catnip can be planted in a pot for easy portability. But it's also a perennial, so you may prefer to plant it in your garden so it will grow year after year. And, if you have a cat, you have a treat for your pet as well as protection from mosquitoes. You can buy 200 seeds on Amazon for $1.85.
Garlic repels mosquitoes and is used in almost all of my favorite Italian recipes. I recommend waiting until the spring to plant garlic, as the weather is better for growing it then, and it takes awhile to harvest. 50 bulbils on Amazon cost $5.79.
Ageratum is another flowering plant that produces small purple/blue flowers. The plant emits a smell that repels mosquitoes. I've never grown this plant before, but you can buy 45 seeds for $5.95 and see for yourself how well it works.
Like rosemary, I found peppermint exceptionally easy to grow. During the summer I use the leaves to flavor water and at the end of the summer I dry the peppermint leaves to make peppermint tea. And 200 Peppermint seeds cost $2.15.
The best thing to do is to place these plants around your garden patio or the area you are most likely to sit outside. Then, when you are grilling, hosting a barbeque, or just enjoying a book outside, crush the leaves. Crushing a few leaves will emit the odor that most effectively drives the mosquitoes away.
Personally, as much as I hate mosquitoes, I would never plant plants just for the sake of repelling the pests. That's why I think these dual mosquito repelling plants are better choices to incorporate into your garden.
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
If you plan to put mint in your garden, be sure to keep it in a separate container - it will spread like wildfire!
I plant my garlic in the fall. It overwinters and sprouts in the spring ready to be harvested in the summer (usually around July). Once you harvest a plant, you can separate one clove from the bulb and plant it in September and repeat the cycle every year.
Thyme and/or citronella geranium will repel skeeters for varying periods of time. Thyme is a herb of a thousand culinary uses. New potatoes dressed with thyme butter will make your taste buds purr with delight.
The best of the repellents is fenugreek seed. Cook curries with plenty of fenugreek and garlic, and skeeters will travel miles to avoid you.
Dear Ms. Lang
Obviously you have never travelled to any Asian or Southamerican country where citronella, better known as lemon grass is widely used in culinary, herbal remedies and beauty treatments. It is always a good idea to have your own as there are lots of uses for it not only to repeal mosquitoes.


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5.3 percent of 12 to 24-year-old internet users report that they were bullied, stalked or threatened online in 2018. Over 140 thousand young people were affected. Girls were almost twice as likely to be a victim as boys (7.1 versus 3.6 percent). Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this based on a survey on cybersecurity and cybercrime.Read publication
Approximately one quarter of young people became victims of crime in 2012. Young men are more often victims of violent crimes than young women. The number of young men receiving victim support is also higher.Read publication


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Netgear Login
As it is very easy to manage and configure Netgear Routers, the Netgear Routers are one of the most used routers in usage. Well, A user must proceed with Netgear Router Login step to configure the router settings and manage the internet connection. And to do that a user must have Netgear Login Username and Password. www.routerlogin.net and 192.168.1.1 are the Netgear Router Login IP which allows the users to log into their router page and update settings.
Customizing and configuring the Netgear Router settings accordingly needs and requirements will offer you a better net usage experience and greater security levels. Well, this post is published as many of our users have no idea about "How to Log into Netgear Router" then this post will help you with login guide and support.
Netgear Router Login
Connect our computer or device with Netgear Internet Connection through an ethernet cable or over Wi-Fi.
Open any browser in your computer and type any of the followings to get to Netgear Router Login IP or Login portal.
- http://www.routerlogin.net
- http://www.routerlogin.com
- http://192.168.1.1
- http://192.168.0.1
You will be on the Netgear Router Login where you have to enter Netgear Router Login Username and Password to get access and configure settings. The default Netgear Router Login Username and Password are admin and password respectively if you haven't changed it yet.
Click on an option available as Login after entering the Netgear Login Credentials and you will be on the Netgear Router Configuration Page where you can edit setting and manage your router.
If you still have any issues or troubles in completing Netgear Login or Netgear Router Login step then you can contact Netgear Customer Service and Support for Netgear Router Login help. A user can contact Netgear Router Support by
- Netgear Customer Service & Support @ 1-888-884-6940
- Netgear Router Login Help @ [email protected]


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I have been trying to go to gemba when I have speaking engagements like this, spending time on the floors of the hospitals I visit to get a sense of how work is organized. Doing so also often provides some examples that make my talks more relevant.
A nurse named Kimmie, on one of the surgical wards, was kind enough to let me shadow her for a while. (At first, she tried to keep explaining things to me. I had to tell her that I just wanted to observe what her work life was like, and to try to forget I was there. Why? Well, if people keep interrupting their work to tell you what is going on, you don't get to see the normal flow of events.)
Anita Tucker at Harvard Business School has conducted studies of how nurses spend their time and has found that they often spend time overcoming obstacles they encounter. Those work-arounds are effective in the short run, permitting the nurses to carry out the tasks at hand, but root cause problems are often left unsolved. Over time, this has created an environment in which nurses are unlikely to spend more than 20% of their time taking care of patients, using the rest on administrative matters and, more likely, fetching or solving problems over and over again. It is an environment ripe for systemic process improvement, but such improvement is often slow to occur, if it ever occurs. This is certainly not the fault of the nurses, who are caring and well-intentioned. The underlying problems lie elsewhere.
But then, immediately after, she called the physical therapist to arrange for the visit. After I had finished my shadowing, I asked her what that was about. Well, she needed to have the PT visit occur today, and the fax order would not be viewed by the PT before the day was over. Hence, she had to call the PT on the phone to put in that request.
An article about Professor Tucker's research put it this way:
By quickly and effectively solving the many small problems that came up throughout their shifts, the nurses Tucker observed continued to provide excellent care to their patients.
The bad news, said Tucker, is that the root causes of the problems - from annoyances like supply shortages to potential dangers like unclear instructions - went unaddressed and thus continued.
I later told this story to my seminar audience. (Some physical therapists in the audience smiled knowingly.) My point, of course, was not to critique this hospital. Jeroen Bosch is a very fine place with excellent, well-intentioned people. It just happened to be where I was when I went to gemba. Check out your place, and you will find the same phenomenon, writ many times over.