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Posts posted by Rivka
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Well, Dawkins weighed in. Is he getting dementia, do you think ? He apparently sees a ruse where young Ahmed made sure he got himself arrested in order to ??? Not clear on that bit.
Richard, Richard, Richard...
Sigh.
I don't believe there's ever been a social issue that went better because Dawkins got involved.
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Your best bet for an accurate and reliable measure of IQ is an individually administered, face to face test like the Stanford-Binet or the WISC. Tests like the OLSAT and NNAT are used for entry into school gifted programs because (1) they are much less expensive to administer, and (2) the school isn't overly concerned about missing kids who don't test well, have other issues going on, or are creative-divergent thinkers.
I'm a clinical psychologist who does a lot of testing. I use the WISC-IV and WISC-V.
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No, this wasn't using parts from another clock. It was taking a clock out of one case (the one it was bought in) and putting it in another box. Anyway, I'm sure that no one cares that kids do that sort of stuff and try to pass it off as their own work, and I guess it doesn't matter (because it was just a clock), it just made the whole thing weirder. He took a clock and put it in a case. Then he carried it around school to show to people (or just the one teacher?) and set the alarm off during English class (reading that made me not surprised it got confiscated at all). But maybe the engineering class is just starting to teach how to open things up or something like that. It is still the beginning of the school year.
At any rate, yes I know clocks have been around for awhile. But, I didn't realize that what he had wasn't an invention because that was how Ahmed referred to it himself. I thought he had made something, put something together, invented something, put a new twist on a clock with some kind of new alarm or whatever. I was mistaken, apparently because I only went by what he was saying and what the headlines were talking about.
ETA: Which, by the way makes the whole detention thing even more ridiculous, because the kid literally had a clock you could buy at the store in a black case you can get at hobby shops. I mean, maybe everything escalated, because why would you put the innards of a clock in a box and carry it around? Maybe they really were dumbfounded by that and stupidly decided it needed some kind of investigation.
Earlier in this thread you were proclaiming your lack of knowledge about electronics. Now you're 100% sure that you know exactly what Ahmed did and how much effort it took. I understand that you read commentary claiming that he just moved clock parts wholesale into another case, but what is your basis for putting all of your faith behind that claim? What is your basis for deciding that this internet guy is the only one out there judging Ahmed's project accurately, and not - for example - the people at MIT, various tech companies, etc.?
I don't think this kid is an unparalleled genius who did stuff that hardly any other kid could do, and I don't think most of his supporters do either. I do think he's a kid with a passion for electronics. I think he compiled and assembled various existing components to make a working clock, and I think that sounds like a cool and appropriate project for a fourteen-year-old. I've seen maker page instructions for similar projects. It's not OH MY GOSH GENIUS, no, but it is a valid expression of curiosity, scientific/engineering interest, and dedication to learning and constructing.
Honestly, you sound like someone who made up your mind about this kid and then went looking for evidence to support your claim. It sounds like you believe this article you found because it supports your pre-existing conclusions.
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Yep, it seems to be just the language. They were hoping that Number the Stars or The Boy In the Striped Pajamas would be a good alternate. I'll just let you enjoy the thought of those being taught in AP class.
Number the Stars was on my daughter's fourth grade reading list.
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When I was a kid, we used to get in trouble too when we brought inventions to school (without teacher permission). Usually the teacher would break our stuff, throw it away, and then give us some additional consequence. I don't remember the police ever being involved, but then our unauthorized inventions didn't tend to involve wires and timing devices.
I love how much scarier it sounds when you say that his invention "involves wires and timing devices."
I guaran-damn-tee you that every single classroom in the state of Texas has a "timing device" hanging on the wall.
How many things in the school have wires, would you suppose?
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Alex and my son are separated by denominational differences. He vastly prefers nerd to geek.
...Should we break it to them that having a strong opinion about the different shades of meaning between these terms is nerdy AND geeky?
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When somebody has the NHLF logo made, start a new thread, please.
If nobody does it by the weekend I'll ask my kid to give it a try. He's good at stuff like that.
I might need to buy shirts in bulk, for everyone on my shopping list.
...Although Alex has been known to voice strong opinions about the difference between "nerdy" and "geeky." I'd wear either shirt, but I think she'd prefer Geeky Homeschoolers Liberation Front.
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The thing about Survivor suing is from a fake news site. nbc.com.co is not affiliated with NBC.
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I think you should live in easy commuting distance from the Baltimore Homeschool Community Center, http://www.baltimorehomeschool.org . Catonsville would fit the bill. Parts of it are beautiful and have a very "small town" community-oriented feel, and parts of it less so. In the Baltimore area, you really have to check out the SPECIFIC block you're considering, not just the reputation of an entire neighborhood.
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I care deeply. I wrote this essay back in 2007, when I was working in an inner-city HIV clinic. This is something that happened there.
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Rivka, you have my deep respect. That is it in a nutshell.
It's been resoundingly unanswered, though. Maybe Tranquil has me on ignore?
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TranquilMind, this doesn't seem to be the appropriate thread for re-hashing the case against gay marriage, unless you're trying to do merry gardens a favor and get the thread shut down.
The Supreme Court ruled. There's no provision for individual government employees to vacate a Supreme Court decision if they disagree with it.
The question before us here is not, "Should the concept of rights in America have followed a different course over time, a course that Kim Davis and TranquilMind would have approved of more?" You've got one answer to that question, and the majority of Americans have a different one, and I understand that that's got to sting. I do. But the question before us now is, "Do government employees act on their own behalf, or on behalf of the government?" And the answer to that questions has always been "on behalf of the government." If that's not how it works, we have chaos.
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The American Visionary Arts Museum, which is on the south side of the harbor. It's all "outsider" art by people who weren't formally trained as artists, and a lot of the exhibits are really cool. Before or after, climb Federal Hill (next door to AVAM) for sweeping views of the harbor and downtown. Plus, if you have kids with you, there's a playground there.
Also, wave northward at me. :seeya:
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Oh yes. There were psychologists advising the military and the CIA about how to torture prisoners most effectively. I would be fired or jailed first. Or I would quit and be a whistleblower.
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Allowing every public servant to choose which laws to follow and which to ignore in the course of their public duties based on their personal religious beliefs would be violating the religious freedom of every citizen. It wouldn't establish just one state religion, it would establish thousands of different flavors of state enforced religions, each enforced in fiefdoms of varying sizes, led by clerks and judges and weird mayors and sheriffs. That.would.be.insane. Not to mention, it would be very, very wrong.
Yes. One of the fundamental concepts of government is the difference between individual actors and state actors. When people are acting as agents of the state, they are understood not to be exercising their own personal wills. We don't expect every soldier to have personal animus towards the enemy. We understand that police can't fail to arrest someone committing a crime because they like the guy. We allow homeschoolers to serve on school boards and teetotallers to serve on liquor control commissions.
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I guess I can see how an elected position is different from the CEO of a private company. Just still seems wrong that it can come down to violating your religion or going to jail. The judge didn't mention her stepping down as even being an option, right? It was just "issue marriage licenses or go to jail."
She could step down at any time. The judge can't remove her from her job, though, because she was elected. So it wasn't one of his options, but it's always been one of hers. She just doesn't choose to do it.
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If you say that she can opt out for religious reasons, as long as someone else in the office is willing to issue a license, that creates a different - and bigger - problem.
I would guess that right now there are thousands of government workers all over America who personally disapprove of same-sex marriage but are complying with the law because it's the law. Once you make the "Kim Davis option" legal, there will be pressure on those people to also refuse.
Right now, nobody except perhaps Kim Davis thinks that a clerk who signs a marriage certificate for a gay couple is necessarily pro-gay-marriage. We understand that they have to obey the law. But if there's a religious opt-out, then people who opt in will be labeled "pro." It makes the act of issuing the certificate a political/moral stance instead of a neutral job duty. What kind of pressure would be put on someone who is the only signer in a small, conservative community? Or the only non-signer in a large, liberal community? Would we want to see county clerk elections become referendums on gay marriage every time one candidate pledges to opt out? Would we want to have big sections of Red States where the only way to win a clerk election, or be appointed clerk, is if you promise to opt out?
Let government employees' private opinions be their private opinions. Let compliance with the law just mean compliance with the law - not a declaration of the employee's personal religious beliefs.
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My reaction would depend on my mood or situation when I read it. If the subtitle interests me (it does) I may be able to put less weight into the opening title. But the professional aspect is brought into question. I would not know how seriously to take the author. Of course it could just mean they are blunt and not PC -- they called themselves (is that right? Themself?) a shrink, after all.
There are circumstances in which I would totally refer to myself as a shrink - say, when talking to a teenager who is there to see me against his will because his parents are insisting. There are other circumstances in which I would NEVER refer to myself as a shrink - say, when I'm positioning myself as a qualified expert in front of parents who might hire me. It's all about audience.
Public libraries try to serve an incredibly diverse audience. The main downtown branch of our public library has a bunch of beautifully written and illustrated picture books with stories on topics like "the day my dad went to prison" and "being a refugee." I didn't get them for my preschoolers because we weren't the target audience for those books, but I was 100% in favor of having them on the open shelves for familes who *did* need those books to discover.
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I think this book is aimed at the large population of people who have mental health issues but would never in a million years want to go to a sweet, soft-voiced female therapist who wants them to talk about their feelings.
Therapists need to speak the language that's appropriate to the client. Ask me sometime about the hyper macho Bear Gryllis-themed OCD treatment plan I did once for a teenage boy. Was it my own personal idiom? Nope. Would I use it on one of y'all? Nope. Did it speak to him? Yep.
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From US News and World Report:
The Kentucky county clerk facing potentially stiff penalties for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses has been married four times, raising questions of hypocrisy and selective application of the Bible to her life.
The marriages are documented in court records obtained by U.S. News, which show that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis divorced three times, first in 1994, then 2006 and again in 2008.
She gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband. They were fathered by her third husband but adopted by her second. Davis worked at the clerk's office at the time of each divorce and has since remarried.
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Oh my:
"Each student will serve as a volunteer in some fashion from 8-10 hours per day, and partial days on Saturdays. All work is considered donated services. Please understand that if you do not work as unto the Lord, you will not remain in the home. Proverbs 14:23 says, “in all labor there is profit†at Reformers Unanimous we believe work is God’s divine design for every man, and woman. Hard work develops character which is vital to making right decisions once you have finished with the program."
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Staff are mostly former drug addicts, with no mention of addictions or mental health training. The website says they treat addictions with prayer, Bible study, and "mentoring."
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Lord, I'm out of touch. I haven't thought him in years.
I was telling dh about Josh Duggar last night - had to remind him who the Duggars are. He asked where I hear all this stuff. The Well Trained Mind Message board. He says, "Isn't that for homeschooling?" with a rather appalled look on his face. Now I get to tell him about Jared.
Hee! Michael and I had a similar conversation. He seemed a bit concerned that I knew so many details of the AM site, like the terms of the affair guarantee. And when I made him promise that, if he ever wants to sleep with someone else, he won't do it through a website that costs our family $1000 we can ill afford, he looked at me very strangely indeed.
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We just got home from vacation on Sunday. :-D We rented a cabin in a state park in the mountains of western Maryland for a week. Hiking, canoeing, swimming, board games, reading, and good food. It was lovely!
#IStandWithAhmed
in The Chat Board
Posted
If your kids have been following this story (my 10-year-old definitely is), they might be interested in the novel Zero Tolerance, by Claudia Mills. Alex and I are reading it together and it's prompting good discussions. It's about a seventh-grade honors student who accidentally brings her mom's lunch bag, which has a paring knife in it, and then gets suspended and threatened with expulsion for violating the school's weapons policy.