As I recall, it also had the first interracial kiss on broadcast TV (even if it was coerced by alien mind-control).

Yeah. One of my friends accidentally backed into my 1996 Volvo in a parking lot. His bumper was destroyed, mine had a scratch. (I would have felt bad if I'd backed into him, but since HE was the one who backed into MY car, and my car was undamaged, I could laugh).

I realize it's more of a Christmas delicacy, but one thing I really miss about visiting the UK is the individually sized mince pies. I love those things. Every time I visited I took 2 dozen back to the US with me.

Oh man, if you put this in the summer ... I would totally have come!

Ideally an old Volvo. They're very safe, stodgy vehicles and the ones I've had have been pretty reliable. That being said, when I go looking for a used car, I set a price range and troll craigslist looking at *everything* that is a possibility. I have a family member who is a decent mechanic who will check them out for me once I've narrowed down the range to a few.

I happened to be in the UK and found all of them in three omnibus editions. I bought them immediately.

Unopened, yes, as long as it passes the sniff and taste test. But I would give it the taste test before I dumped it into anything.

Walking is great. I assume you're going to include Yorkshire in the dinner? It's something a lot of Americans don't really get.

Is it the ebook that's making it unavailable? Here's the print copy -- http://www.amazon.com/Simon-The-Genius-My-Basement/dp/0385341083

I never really watched much star trek episodes -- we didn't have a tv, but I read all the books. So I don't have a series suggestion, but I have some book suggestions from the original series era! Diane Duane -- anything she wrote is enjoyable reading, although Spock's World is my favorite. John Ford -- The Final Reflection Greg Cox -- The Eugenics Wars books I also recommend the movies 2, 3 (more for plot continuity than anything else), 4, and 6. 1 is an abomination and should only be watched by the truly dedicated. Uhura's Song (book) is ok too, very light but amusing. Edit: If you want to familiarize yourself with TOS but can't get over the horrible visuals (let's give a dog a funny haircut and call it an alien), read the Blish adaptations. Blish was a good SF writer in his own right and that's how I got into ST in the first place.

Yes. You are not bringing down the subtraction sign from the original problem. You're subtracting off the result of x^2 (x + 2). If your original problem began with x^3 + 3x^2 your x^2 term would be (3x^2 - 2x^2).

When I teach multiplying fractions to our developmental students, I usually have them write out all the factors from the numerator and all the factors from the denominator before they cancel. For your example, I'd have them write it as (2)(3) / (3)(4), and then it is more obvious to see. With practice it becomes easier to see and shortcuts can be taken.

You shouldn't be subtracting (x^3 - 2x^2). You should be subtracting (x^3 + 2x^2). Why do you feel the sign on the 2 should change? Sometimes people are taught to add the negative instead -- so they would be adding (-x^3 - 2x^2) -- this is mathematically legitimate even though I don't care for it because I feel it confuses people more. Have you gotten this mixed up with the subtracting somehow?

The trig/ea course that you took probably best corresponds to precalculus now. Calc AB is calc 1 and some topics from calc 2. Multivariable is usually calc 3. The reason that someone might need to take college algebra if they had taken calculus in high school is that they didn't really learn anything from their calculus class. It would follow algebra 2 (intermediate algebra at a college).

I wouldn't risk it. Frankly, the placement test scores are set to where a certain percentage of the students will fail. They aren't set to "is definitely prepared for this class" because that would hold too many students with a reasonable chance of passing back. For example, if our stats show "students with a score of x have an 80% chance of passing this class, assuming they show up and try", we would likely let students with this score in. It is hard on the 20% who don't pass, but it is better than keeping the other 80% in a class that they don't need.

Yes. Seriously. You wouldn't believe the number of people who will be doing something ... like adding 5 2-digit numbers ... and get a 4-digit output, and just write it down because that's what the calculator said, and not REALIZE that that is totally incorrect.

It sounds kinda like anatomy and physiology. There are a lot of people in that class for sure (one of my friends teaches it) who think they're going to be a nurse because it pays well, but all they really know of nursing is what they see on TV. They think it's irrelevant (they also think my algebra class is irrelevant -- unit conversions? pfft) and view it as a hurdle to get through. So I would expand my earlier statement to say that something which is an entry-point to many well-paying careers is also going to have a lot of whining, because a lot of students are only focused on the degree they want and not on "this is a prerequisite so it is probably important".

As far as radicals, if a calculator is not used I would expect radicals to be left in exact but simplified form -- i.e. 4 sqrt 2 instead of sqrt 32. I don't think that learning an algorithm for finding square roots of numbers is very useful now. If someone is asked for, say, the square root of 27.4, they should know that it's "five and a bit", but usually a higher degree of precision is something I'd use a calculator for. I would start using a calculator when not doing so would require use of trigonometric or logarithmic tables. There is, again, no real point to learning these in this day and age with the ubiquity of the scientific calculator. However, I would still prefer to see students move as far as possible before punching buttons on a calculator.

I think that you'd see less of the whining in the art classes that are only not required but usually not part of the general education requirements than you would in general education requirements. The higher the percentage of students who are in a class because they want a degree instead of wanting to learn the material, the more whining there will be.

Personally I think General Science sounds great. It'll give him an overview of everything and not be excessively difficult since you said he reads well. Breaking up long days is good too. I think BCM is a great idea. Does he enjoy watching documentaries? I would consider having some basic history documentaries on during lunchtime, again, to break up the day and provide background knowledge. I wouldn't try and be truly systematic about it and I'd start with something he found interesting.

Flatland and Sphereland. They're a bit sexist due to the time of publication, so I would skim them yourself first, but I enjoyed them greatly anyway. Math for Smarty Pants. <3 <3 <3 this book.

FWIW, I agree with the BA people. I see it as a good setup for doing problems like (x+3)(x^2 - 3x + 2) in algebra, because the procedure for algebra will be the same as the procedure for arithmetic was.

Related and yet not the same. Definition: A binary operation on a set is basically an operation that takes two inputs from the set and returns one output, also in the set. Common examples: Addition and multiplication on integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and complex numbers. Addition and multiplication on nxn matrices with entries from the above sets. Addition, multiplication, and composition of real-valued functions Examples of things that are not binary operations: Division on the integers -- 1/2 is not an integer. Division on the real numbers -- to define it as a binary operation you need to specify the non-zero real numbers. A group, then, is a set together with a binary operation (let us use * for the operation) defined on that set that satisfies three properties: 1) The binary operation is associative -- a*(b*c) = (a*b)*c 2) There is an identity element, denoted by e, such that a*e = e*a = a for every a in the set. 3) Every element in the set has an inverse in the set -- that is, for every a in the set, there is a b in the set such that a*b = b*a = e. Basic examples of groups: The integers under addition. It is a set with a binary operation, addition is associative, the identity element is 0, and the inverse of a is -a. The non-zero rational numbers under multiplication. It is a set with a binary operation, multiplication is associative, the identity element is 1, and the inverse of a is 1/a. Note that the restriction to non-zero rational numbers is required as otherwise 0 would not have an inverse. Much cooler example - symmetry group! This is not my page, but it's correct and putting images in here is obnoxious. http://dogschool.tripod.com/trianglegroup.html Anyway, so group theory studies groups and their properties. (btw, we usually spend about 1.5 weeks of lecture getting to everything that I put in this post, including doing lots of examples and some basic set theory as a lead-in).

Oh my, and they've got a first draft of a group theory book. I really want it even though I doubt it would be suitable for the class I teach in that area :P

Yes, and I was not, but my mother was. The inner-city hospital where she was, though, was so understaffed and broke that the candy stripers ended up doing a lot more than they were really supposed to be doing, feeding, bathing, etc.