There is a learning technique pioneered in language studies by Pimsleur which makes sense: You learn a word (or some other thing) and over time forget it, and the “forgetting curve” is steep. But, if you re-encounter that same information while the curve is descending you learn it again and the descent into nothingness is shallower. Encounter it again and the line flattens out. This is why if you take a Pimsleur language course, they tell you to NOT study ahead; You are to use each module daily, not skipping a day and not doing two modules in one day. Very nice idea but not mathematically rigorous.

But now we have this:

A dilemma faced by teachers, and increasingly by designers of educational software, is the trade-off between teaching new material and reviewing what has already been taught. Complicating matters, review is useful only if it is neither too soon nor too late. Moreover, different students need to review at different rates. We present a mathematical model that captures these issues in idealized form. The student’s needs are modeled as constraints on the schedule according to which educational material and review are spaced over time. Our results include algorithms to construct schedules that adhere to various spacing constraints, and bounds on the rate at which new material can be introduced under these schedules.

The paper is here

The Russian probe destine for the Mars system never made it out of Earth Orbit and recently crashed back into Planet Earth. Why did the rocket ship fail? There has apparently been a lot of obfuscation of what caused this disaster, but now there is some better information. It may have been caused by a computer programming error.

From Irene Klotz at Discovery News:

In a report to be presented to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Tuesday, investigators concluded that the primary cause of the failure was “a programming error which led to a simultaneous reboot of two working channels of an onboard computer,” the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Though it may have been more complicated than that, and partly due to inadequate electronic parts in the computer, according The Planetary Society.

Obama instantly reacts by hiring his new science advisor!

Huffpo:

In a rare floor speech Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) demanded that the Obama administration reverse its new rule requiring most employers’ insurance plans to cover birth control with no co-pay for employees. Boehner pledged to take legislative action if the administration refuses to reverse.

New York Times:

As the Republican presidential candidates and conservative leaders sought to frame the rule as showing President Obama’s insensitivity to religious beliefs, Mr. Obama’s aides promised to explore ways to make it more palatable to religious-affiliated institutions, perhaps by allowing some employers to make side insurance plans available that are not directly paid for by the institutions.

At the moment, the Wandering Albatross of the Southern Ocean is getting a free ride; Changes in wind patterns due to Global Warming seem to enhance the efficiency of foraging of this pelagic bird. However, as Global Warming continues, this rare case of a positive benefit of anthropocentric climate change will probably reverse. Climatic hormesis, as it were.

Read More.

Actually, they can’t, but they’re having fun.

I know some of you are Piercians, and some of you are interested in Neuroscience. So, without comment I give you this abstract of a recent paper:

Past experience provides a rich source of predictive information about the world that could be used to guide and optimize ongoing perception. However, the neural mechanisms that integrate information coded in long-term memory (LTM) with ongoing perceptual processing remain unknown. Here, we explore how the contents of LTM optimize perception by modulating anticipatory brain states. By using a paradigm that integrates LTM and attentional orienting, we first demonstrate that the contents of LTM sharpen perceptual sensitivity for targets presented at memory-predicted spatial locations. Next, we examine oscillations in EEG to show that memory-guided attention is associated with spatially specific desynchronization of alpha-band activity over visual cortex. Additionally, we use functional MRI to confirm that target-predictive spatial information stored in LTM triggers spatiotopic modulation of preparatory activity in extrastriate visual cortex. Finally, functional MRI results also implicate an integrated cortical network, including the hippocampus and a dorsal frontoparietal circuit, as a likely candidate for organizing preparatory states in visual cortex according to the contents of LTM.

It is an Open Access paper so you can read it here.

Comments?

I like the way the solar heat dives into the ocean at the last moment.

Should we worry about calderas, like Santorini or the Yellowstone Caldera, blowing up with little warning? Sort of, in geological time that is. Turns out that the period of time between not much happening and the buildup of magma prior to a major eruption is startlingly short.

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• It is not a bowl, but rather, a football game.
• The 2010 Super Bowl would have been won by the Minnesota Vikings had the New Orleans Saints not cheated.
• It is not true that if your city is destroyed by an Act of God that you get to win the Super Bowl for that reason at a later time. Were that true, the Port-au-Prince football team would have won the Super Bowl by now, surely (hat tip: JAF).
• New Yorkers do not automatically like New York Teams.
• The New England Patriots were disowned by Boston, New Haven and all of the other cities of New England until the year they won their first Super Bowl, then everybody was mad that that they had their party in Providence.
• There is not really a Super Bowl Baby Boom and not everyone in New Orleans is clear on the concept of where babies come from.
• The search phrase “super bowl healthy snack” yields 465 Google Hits.
• More food is consumed in the United States on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day.
• In Somalia, the same amount of food is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day; Very little.

According to an email I just received from Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood president. Planned Parenthood is grateful and happy for the three million dollars in donations, and also happy that Komen “has clarified its grantmaking criteria” and Planned Parenthood looks “forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders, and volunteers. What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer, and we are proud to be a leading source for women seeking preventive care.”

Bottom line: Planned Parenthood raised about five years worth of Komen Support. My suggestion: If you are like me, you’ll want to see Komen rot and die on the vine. If you are like those namby pampy nice people and want to reward Komen for being absolute dicks and getting called on it, and want to return to running around in circles wearing all sorts of pink shit, then fine, but do consider waiting five years to see what Komen does between now and then.

They still have not totally clarified their policy, the Fundamentalist Christians that seem to have taken over the organization have not resigned, and there is no reason to believe that they won’t do this again.

They pissed of the center and the left. By caving to Planned Parenthood they will now piss off the right. There really isn’t anything they can do effectively at this point.

It really is better if big organizations like this disappear now and then, especially for reasons like this. Keeps everybody else in line. From her eon in nobody is going to let themselves get Komenned very easily.

Susan B whatever the hell Komen race for the whateverwhatever foundation (stupidest name ever) has caved from pressure from YOU. They have changed their policy about not funding organizations “under investigation” to not funding organizations that are “actually really under investigation for something real” and explicitly state that the will not denounce organizations for political reasons (but wait, there’s more … see below..). Continue reading Komen Caves, but So What? →

The first study that looks at telomere length in a large sample of animals from birth to death is out. Check it out.