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robertogreco + comparison   116

Twitter / @ablerism: Love Berlin. Human scale o ...
"Love Berlin. Human scale of Boston, sophistication of Brooklyn. And way cheaper, even in 2012. Wish I could share it w/ @bjford, @infrathin."
nyc  2012  comparison  sarahendren  cities  brooklyn  boston  berlin  from delicious
february 2012 by robertogreco
Deborah Meier's Blog on Education: February 2012 - Trip to Japan
"My son reminded them that it was not so long ago when teachers and politicians in America were told that Japanese schools were the future. Why can’t we do as they do, we were asked? Before that it was Russian schools. And since then it’s been Singapore and now Finland. We were told Japanese children were obedient and hard working, although listening to the teacher talk last week it was clear that they were having virtually all the same problems we were and moving in the same direction we are. They found our description of Japanese education amusing.

There is a lot of educational turmoil there as here, as two “factions” battle for the future: those wanting a more rigid, centralized, exam-driven top-down approach and those who believe the Japanese have to move in a progressive direction if they are to become innovators as well as followers—economically and politically."
debate  comparison  international  standardizedtesting  obedience  testing  traditional  progressive  policy  via:cervus  education  2012  japan  deborahmeier  _obedience  from delicious
february 2012 by robertogreco
Penn South and Pruitt-Igoe, Starkly Different Housing Tales - NYTimes.com
"Penn South is a cooperative in affluent, 21st-century Manhattan past which chic crowds hustle every day to and from nearby Chelsea’s art galleries, apparently oblivious to it. It thrives within a dense, diverse neighborhood of the sort that makes NY special. Pruitt-Igoe, segregated de facto, isolated & impoverished, collapsed along w/ the industrial city around it.

But they’re both classic examples of modern architecture, the kind Mr. Jencks, among countless others, left for dead: superblocks of brick & concrete high rises scattered across grassy plots, so-called towers in the park, descended from Le Corbusier’s “Radiant City.” The words “housing project” instantly conjure them up.

Alienating, penitential breeding grounds for vandalism & violence: that became the tower in the park’s epitaph. But Penn South, with its stolid redbrick, concrete-slab housing stock, is clearly a safe, successful place. In this case the architecture works. In St. Louis, where the architectural scheme…"
2012  urbanism  urban  design  comparison  nyc  stlouis  lecorbusier  architecture  pruitt-igoe 
january 2012 by robertogreco
Raiders of the Lost Archives - YouTube
"Shot-by-shot comparison of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" vs. scenes from 30 different adventure films made between 1919-1973."
filmmaking  comparison  everythingisaremix  film  raidersofthelostark  raidersofthelostarchives  from delicious
january 2012 by robertogreco
xkcd: Money
money  xkcd  economics  visualization  economy  finance  infographics  inequality  wealth  wealthdistribution  us  world  2011  data  statistics  comparison  toshare  classideas  class  from delicious
november 2011 by robertogreco
for the love of learning: Paradoxes of the Finland Phenomenon
"So why is comparing and contrasting Finland and Norway important?

Upon hearing about the progress Finland has had with their education system, many policy-makers in other countries may be inclined to point towards the Finns smaller, more homogenous population as the primary reason for their successes in the classroom. That Norway and Finland can share such similarities in population and yet differ with their education systems may be enough proof that policy choices, rather than demographics, can play a potentially larger role in a nation's educational success."
finland  norway  education  teaching  policy  schools  comparison  us  canada  pasisahlberg  unschooling  deschooling  curriculum  from delicious
november 2011 by robertogreco
Global Gender Gap | World Economic Forum-Global Gender Gap
"The Global Gender Gap Report’s index assesses 134 countries on how well they divide resources and opportunities amongst male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas:

1) Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment

2) Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education

3) Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio

4) Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures"
gender  women  gendergap  classideas  rankings  comparison  international  from delicious
october 2011 by robertogreco
Why More Americans Suffer From Mental Disorders Than Anyone Else - Alice G. Walton - Life - The Atlantic
"That mental health disorders are pervasive in the United States is no secret. Americans suffer from all sorts of psychological issues, and the evidence indicates that they're not going anywhere despite (or because of?) an increasing number of treatment options…

The WHO has come up with vast catalogues of mental health data, which they are constantly updating. See how the U.S. compares to other countries:"
mentaldisorders  mentalhealth  psychology  us  comparison  2011  trends  international  depression  eatingdisorders  substanceabuse  drugs  pharmaceuticals  society  wealth  inequality  disparity  from delicious
october 2011 by robertogreco
BBC Dimensions: How Many Really?
"How Many Really? compares the number of people involved in key historical events or situations to the people you know through Facebook or Twitter. You can also add your own numbers — for example, the amount of students in your class.<br />
<br />
Choose a story to get started."
berg  berglondon  bbc  comparison  history  visualization  data  statistics  numbers  scale  howmanyreally?  has:for  from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco
BBC Dimensions: How Many Really? – Blog – BERG
"One of the concepts was called ‘Dimensions’ – a set of tools that looked to juxtapose the size of things from history and the news with things you are familiar with – bringing them home to you.<br />
<br />
About a year ago, we launched the first public prototype from that thinking, http://howbigreally.com, which overlaid the physical dimensions of news events such as the 2010 Pakistan Floods, or historic events such as the Apollo 11 moonwalks on where you lived or somewhere you were familiar with.<br />
<br />
It was a simple idea that proved pretty effective, with over half-a-million visitors in the past year, and a place in the MoMA Talk To Me exhibition.<br />
<br />
Today, we’re launching its sibling, howmanyreally.com"
berg  berglondon  history  data  howmanyreally?  socialmedia  mashup  2011  comparison  numbers  context  howbigreally?  from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco
BBC Dimensions: Aztec Human Sacrifice
"It's estimated that 20,000 humans were sacrificed by the Aztecs every year.<br />
How does this compare to the number of people you know?"
aztecs  ancientcivilization  classideas  howmanyreally?  comparison  numbers  from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco
BBC Dimensions: Democracy of Classical Athens
"Athens is cited as the birthplace of democracy yet only a fraction of its people were allowed to vote.<br />
<br />
How many of your friends would have been able to vote?"
athens  greece  comparison  classideas  ancientcivilization  ancientgreece  howmanyreally?  from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco
Debunking the Cul-de-Sac - Design - The Atlantic Cities
"Safest cities in America are the ones incorporated before 1930, when streets were laid out in grids. Fashion and regulation shifted then to favouring winding streets and cul-de-sacs. Which turn out to be inefficient and dangerous"
safety  urbandesign  urban  urbanism  cities  suburbs  suburbia  density  cars  transportation  cul-de-sac  california  research  normangarrick  wesleymarshall  patterns  comparison  grids  traditionalgrid  fha  design  urbanplanning  2011  from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco
Afghanistan journalist's sojourn in 'strange paradise' - latimes.com
"Emal Haidary left the 'interesting hell' of Afghanistan to visit the U.S. In Los Angeles, he found that the world's richest nation has its share of problems, but also the freedoms envied by others."
afghanistan  us  comparison  losangeles  2011  emalhaidary  culture  from delicious
september 2011 by robertogreco
BBC - Dimensions: How big really?
"Dimensions takes important places, events and things, and overlays them onto a map of where you are.

Type in your postcode or a place name to get started."
history  science  maps  mapping  visualization  scale  comparison  classideas  berg  berglondon  bbc  dimensions  howbigreally?  has:for  from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco
Scripting Languages: PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby - Hyperpolyglot
"a side-by-side reference sheet"
reference  programming  coding  comparison  ruby  perl  php  python  from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco
Numbeo: Cost of Living
"Numbeo is the biggest free Internet database about cost of living worldwide!

In the past 18 months, 169851 prices in 1725 cities entered by 16615 different contributors (information updated 2011-08-12)

Numbeo allows you to see, share and compare information about cost of living worldwide, by providing online software which :

• allows users to enter or edit cost of living for many cities in the world
• calculates derivated indexes such as consumer price index, domestic purchasing power and others
• efficiently compares all information

If you find something helpful or if you like the website, take a little time to help someone else, by contributing your local cost knowledge."
costofliving  comparison  cities  moving  economics  business  data 
august 2011 by robertogreco
PHRAS.IN - Say this or say that?
"Because spell checkers only do 80% of the job.<br />
If you, like me, speak English as a second language, you know that using correct spelling doesn't protect you from writing those awkward sounding lines.<br />
Tell me, how many times did you come up with two ways to say the same thing, and couldn't decide which one was the best fit?<br />
My solution was to google both expressions and check out the number of web results.<br />
<br />
Low figures meant that very few people ever phrased the sentence that way, thus it was probably incorrect.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, higher numbers indicated common use, and the 3 line preview in the results helped me figure out if I was using the right form.<br />
This tool does just that, in a much quicker and convenient way."<br />
<br />
"Tip: You can get results straight from the address bar, just type http://phras.in/phrase1/phrase2"
phras.in  writing  comparison  language  english  phrasing  usage  commonuse  classideas  wcydwt  from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco
The Scale of the Universe, Five Ways | Brain Pickings
"Since yesterday was 10.10.10, we’ve decided to celebrate this cosmic alignment of numerical symmetry by illuminating the measurements of magnitude. Today, we are taking five different looks at one of the most difficult concepts for the human brain to quantify and understand: The size and scale of the universe."
history  science  visualization  data  scale  time  distance  comparison  heat  measurement  from delicious
august 2011 by robertogreco
In Defense of Hacks - By Toby Harnden | Foreign Policy ["Britain's press is sensationalistic, sloppy, and scandal-prone -- and America would be lucky to have one like it."]
"American newspaper articles are in the main more accurate & better-researched than British ones…But stories in US press also tend to be tedious, overly long, & academic, written for the benefit of po-faced editors & Pulitzer panels rather than readers. There's a reason a country w/ a population one-fifth the size of that of the US buys millions more newspapers each week. For all their faults, British "rags" are more vibrant, entertaining, opinionated, & competitive than American newspapers. We break more stories, upset more people, & have greater political impact. (BBC, with its decidedly American outlook on news, has become increasingly irrelevant…)…The danger of the fevered atmosphere in Britain…is that what Prime Minister Tony Blair once termed the "feral beast" of the media might be tamed & muzzled. Perhaps the worst outcome of all would be for it to be turned into an American-style lapdog."
uk  news  us  journalism  reporting  tobyharnden  bbc  comparison  readers  2011  rupertmurdoch  via:preoccupations  from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco
All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup | Mother Jones
"You: doing more with less. Corporate profits: up 22 percent. The dirty secret of the jobless recovery."
culture  society  politics  economics  business  work  labor  us  world  comparison  productivity  2011  overwork  wages  growth  employment  unemployment  disparity  inequality  vacation  maternityleave  childcare  from delicious
july 2011 by robertogreco
SpeEdChange: Measurement and the Overpromise
The problem with measurement is that it does three very negative things: (1)…creates false comparisons against a fiction - "the average human" & "the average human experience." The child born in the village in rural Kenya is made to line up against Bill Gate's children, on a scale created by Bill Gates. Thus that child is "not white enough," "not Protestant enough," "does not read enough books," and simply lacks "computer time." (2)…ties us firmly to the past - we can only measure against a known… (3) measurement limits what a society thinks is important.…<br />
<br />
And of course, "measurers" become "fixers."
irasocol  measurement  education  fixing  learning  tcsnmy  rttt  gatesfoundation  billgates  politics  policy  comparison  falsecomparisons  society  capitalism  2011  from delicious
june 2011 by robertogreco
Overworked America: 12 Charts that Will Make Your Blood Boil | Mother Jones
"In the past 20 years, the US economy has grown nearly 60 percent. This huge increase in productivity is partly due to automation, the internet, and other improvements in efficiency. But it's also the result of Americans working harder—often without a big boost to their bottom lines. Oh, and meanwhile, corporate profits are up 20 percent."
culture  politics  economics  business  work  labor  us  world  comparison  productivity  2011  overwork  wages  growth  employment  unemployment  disparity  inequality  vacation  maternityleave  childcare 
june 2011 by robertogreco
Self-evaluation maintenance theory - Wikipedia
"Self-evaluation maintenance theory refers to discrepancies between two people in a relationship. Two people in a relationship each aim to keep themselves feeling good psychologically throughout a comparison process to the other person.[1] Self-evaluation is defined as the way a person views him/herself. It is the continuous process of determining personal growth and progress, which can be raised or lowered by the behavior of a close other (a person that is psychologically close). People are more threatened by friends than strangers. Abraham Tesser created the self-evaluation maintenance theory in 1988. The self-evaluation maintenance model assumes two things: that a person will try to maintain or increase their own self-evaluation, and self-evaluation is influenced by relationships with others."
psychology  behavior  social  competition  brain  relationships  self-esteem  abrahamtesser  comparison  personalgrowth  progress  success  influence  from delicious
may 2011 by robertogreco
How Grad School Is Like Trying to Make the NBA - storify.com
"What do you tell a smart, committed undergraduate who wants to become a professor and pursue a PhD?"
education  highered  highereducation  timcarmody  sports  gradschool  teaching  nba  basketball  comparison  2010  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
A Tax Day Celebration: Taxes Pay For Necessary Government Services And Make Capitalism Workable. | The New Republic
"The Nordic countries are far more homogenous than the U.S. and it’s an open question whether a society as diverse and unequal as ours would support such a high tax burden. (This is one of the points Douthat makes in his column.) But even if we do absolutely nothing but let current law stand--in other words, if we let the Bush tax cuts expire, allow the alternative minimum tax to remain in place, allow scheduled reductions in physician fees to take effect, and limit the control of health care costs only to the official projections for the Affordable Care Act--it seems likely that our tax burden would still not exceed what the Nordic countries face today, at least not for another 50 years.*"
taxes  us  policy  medicine  healthcare  scandinavia  comparison  2011  education  spending  austerity  austeritymeasures  busherataxcuts  government  nordiccountries  society  via:cburell  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
The Daily What: Word Clouds of the Day
"Word Clouds of the Day: Crystal Smith @ The Achilles Effect (a site that examines how young boys’ understanding of masculinity affects their perception of femininity) culled a list of words from 59 toy spots directed at either boys or girls and plugged them into Wordle to produce a word cloud illustrating which words are used most often in ads targeting boys (top) versus words used most often in ads targeting girls.

“This is not an exhaustive record,” Smith says, “it’s really just a starting point, but the results certainly are interesting.”

A complete breakdown of the facts and figures can be found here. A follow-up post with responses to common questions and criticisms can be found here."
classideas  wordle  advertising  toys  gender  femininity  boys  girls  words  language  comparison  masculinity  perception  from delicious
april 2011 by robertogreco
A Draft Of My #TEDxRevolution Speech: A Kid’s Responsibility to Freedom | The Jose Vilson
"Let’s build schools that help us pull down that ceiling. Let’s de-emphasize schooling and more about learning. Let’s teach them extraction, and asking the questions behind the bubble sheet. Let them have breakfast; give them some! Make sure they clean up after themselves, though. Walk away from the chalkboard and repeat their names when they say something important. Implore them to say “I don’t get it” and don’t berate them for it. Don’t take their failures personally, but be sure they know why you’re disappointed. You’re planting seeds even when you’re not the only one tending the farm."
josevilson  prisons  schools  schooliness  comparison  lists  control  freedom  responsibility  self-discipline  discipline  decisionmaking  democracy  revolution  rebellion  silence  order  hierarchy  authority  authoritarianism  dresscodes  tcsnmy  lcproject  unschooling  deschooling  education  learning  criticalthinking  identity  questioning  schedules  reflection  teaching  cv  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
US: Most Inefficient Healthcare System In The World
"If you look at the US fiscal situation, it's easy to see that Medicare is a looming black hole ready to swallow the entire economy. Reforming the entitlement seems necessary to prevent fiscal ruin.<br />
<br />
But actually that's too narrow a way of looking at things. After all, the costs borne by Medicare are no more sustainable if they're shifted to private individuals. It's just the path is different.<br />
<br />
The REAL problem is how expensive our healthcare system is compared to its benefits, at least relative to other countries.<br />
<br />
This chart is from SocGen's Albert Edwards. As you can see, the US has the same life-expectancy of Chile at 7 times the cost.<br />
<br />
Now, the root causes of this can be debated ad nauseum. We need to reform what we pay for. We need to lose weight. We need to end the doctor cartel, on and on you can go. But if you're looking for a problem THIS is it.<br />
Solve it, and the Medicare crisis goes away."<br />
<br />
[It's not quite that simple, but the charts are useful.]
healthcare  money  economics  2011  us  chile  comparison  lifeexpectancy  medicare  from delicious
march 2011 by robertogreco
Where Children Sleep by James Mollison
children  comparison  international  books  sleep  art  photography  world  global  via:cervus  jamesmollison  wealth  disparity  incomegap  poverty  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age
history  latebloomers  accomplishment  dates  age  aging  cv  comparison  via:coldbrain  inspiration  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
Gym class. | The Fat Nutritionist [via: http://plsj.tumblr.com/post/3528103413/gym-class]
"If you want to destroy all the inherent joy in something, slap a grade on it.… [Go read what follows — it's good.]"<br />
<br />
"“It’s considered cruel to keep a dog tethered to one spot without a place to run, or cooped up in a tiny apartment unless the owner is really dedicated to going on walks. Even my cats, the most indolent creatures ever to occupy the earth, need strings and foam balls and random, crumpled up pieces of paper to bat inconveniently beneath furniture. They sleep, eat, and poop for twenty-three-and-a-half hours of the day…but for the remaining thirty minutes? They are tearing shit up like it is their mission in life. Animals need movement, and even have an appetite for it, just as they do food and sleep. Also, humans are animals. We need to move. All of us — even those of us who are not physically gifted. But, just as with eating, external pressures and expectations get in the way of our ability to negotiate this very primal urge.”"
grades  grading  motivation  comparison  school  schooling  onesizefitsall  weight  obesity  exercise  movement  human  animals  instinct  schooliness  unschooling  deschooling  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
Teacher Pay Around the World - NYTimes.com
"American teachers spend on average 1,080 hours teaching each year. Across the O.E.C.D., the average is 794 hours on primary education, 709 hours on lower secondary education, and 653 hours on upper secondary education general programs."<br />
<br />
"In the United States, a teacher with 15 years of experience makes a salary that is 96 percent of the country’s gross domestic product per capita. Across the O.E.C.D., a teacher of equivalent experience makes 117 percent of G.D.P. per capita. At the high end of the scale, in Korea, the average teacher at this level makes a full 221 percent of the country’s G.D.P. per capita."
teaching  teachers  comparison  us  pay  salaries  workday  hours  via:grahamje  2009  international  from delicious
february 2011 by robertogreco
NYC Public School Parents: What Finland and Asia tell us about real education reform
"And yet what lesson have the Obama administration and its allies in the DC think thanks and corporate and foundation world taken from the PISA results? That there needs to be even more high-stakes testing, based on uniform core standards, that teachers should be evaluated and laid off primarily on the basis of their student test scores, and that it's fine if class sizes are increased. <br />
In a speech, Duncan recently said that "Many high-performing education systems, especially in Asia," Duncan says, "have substantially larger classes than the United States." <br />
What he did not mention is that Finland based its success largely upon smaller class sizes; nor the way in which many experts in Asian education recognize the heavy costs of their test-based accountability systems, and the way in which their schools undermine the ability ofstudents to develop as creative and innovate thinkers -- which their future economic growth will depend upon."
research  asia  finland  testing  standardizedtesting  standardization  teaching  learning  policy  nclb  schools  schooling  us  china  pisa  comparison  korea  arneduncan  2011  barackobama  georgewill  business  democracy  rttt  classsize  pasisahlberg  politics  economics  money  misguidedenergy  respect  training  salaries  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
Yong Zhao » “It makes no sense”: Puzzling over Obama’s State of the Union Speech
"Obama also said in his speech:<br />
<br />
"Remember-–for all the hits we’ve taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world. No workers—no workers are more productive than ours. No country has more successful companies, or grants more patents to inventors & entrepreneurs. We’re the home to the world’s best colleges & universities, where more students come to study than any place on Earth."<br />
<br />
So who has made America “the largest, most prosperous economy in the world?” Who are these most productive workers? Where did the people who created the successful companies come from? & who are these inventors that received the most patents in the world?<br />
<br />
It has to be the same Americans who ranked bottom on the international tests… [STATS]…Apparently they have not driven the US into oblivion and ruined the country’s innovation record.
education  rttt  obama  2011  policy  schools  innovation  china  india  children  learning  creativity  economics  teaching  publicschools  yongzhao  us  science  stem  moreofthesame  moreisnotbetter  competition  competitiveness  curriculum  pisa  comparison  history  future  nclb  arneduncan  reform  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
TeacherHaines Blog: Interview with Anna Hoffstrom (Part Two) [Some of the description of Finnish schools sounds a lot like TCS]
"school in Finland…informal & laid back…Students took shoes off along w/ coats, called teachers by 1st name, different grades were all sociable w/ each other. Kids were giggling & playing in corridors<br />
<br />
academically much more advanced than US schools <br />
<br />
kids start school at age 7 (studies show makes 1st years more effective & disrupts family life less), in same class w/ same kids from grades 1-6 in elementary & middle school grades 7-9<br />
<br />
After 9th grade, students have to pick either vocational or academic high school…treat applicants much like colleges<br />
<br />
education is compulsory until grade 9 (or until age 17), secondary school has tuition, children going to school use same public transportation system everyone else does. Bus fares, food, regular medical check ups paid for by government until child has completed compulsory schooling. Out-of-country field trips are common in grade 9<br />
<br />
Finnish schools give students much more responsibility than US…makes them so academically capable"
finland  education  schools  policy  health  healthcare  comparison  us  unschooling  deschooling  tcsnmy  responsibility  teaching  learning  lcproject  government  money  funding  transportation  publictransit  socialsafetynet  socialprograms  agesegregation  firstnamebasis  classideas  food  travel  classtrips  trust  stress  anxiety  annahoffstrom  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
How The Other Side Thinks « stone soup
"I was curious to see whether this correlation between educational values and leadership carries for other countries, and did a little impromptu research. I looked at the top 9 leaders of each country, and found their undergraduate major and/or graduate field. I started with the U.S., China, India, Singapore, and Germany. I would be interested in seeing others; however, I lack the language skill or Googling will to look them up.<br />
<br />
I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but perhaps it should come as no surprise, given the results, that the Chinese government is less concerned about humanitarian issues than economic growth, infrastructure development, and technological advancement."
us  china  germany  india  singapore  policy  priorities  law  economics  government  leadership  leaders  humanities  humanrights  humanitarian  development  hujintao  barackobama  engineering  comparison  2011  from delicious
january 2011 by robertogreco
ClubOrlov: America—The Grim Truth [A bit over the top, but there are some major truths in here, especially about the worry that results from the financial precariousness we feel as part of our system, lack of social safety net]
"Americans, I have some bad news for you:<br />
<br />
You have the worst quality of life in the developed world—by a wide margin.<br />
<br />
If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.<br />
<br />
I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.<br />
<br />
I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.<br />
<br />
Consider this…"
politics  collapse  us  economics  health  healthcare  expats  2010  via:mathowie  finance  well-being  qualityoflife  food  pharmaceuticals  work  balance  australia  fragmentation  teaparty  immigration  emmigration  canada  newzealand  japan  europe  comparison  middleeast  guns  safety  society  fear  dystopia  unemployment  decline  oil  peakoil  grimfutures  change  policy  freedom  germany  finland  italy  france  scandinavia  singlepayerhealthsystem  government  socialsafetynet  bankruptcy  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
University Diaries » From UD’s Christmas Reading [Tony Judt, from The Memory Chalet; via: http://ayjay.tumblr.com/post/2477115696/the-best-thing-about-america-is-its-universities]
“best thing about America is its universities. Not Harvard, Yale, e tutti quanti: though marvelous…not distinctively American–roots reach across ocean to Oxford, Heidelberg, …Nowhere else in world…can boast such public unis. You drive for miles across a godforsaken midwestern scrubscape, pockmarked by billboards, Motel 6s & military parade of food chains, when—like some pedagogical mirage dreamed up by 19th century English gentleman—there appears…a library! & not just any library: Bloomington boasts 7.8-million-volume collection in 900+ languages, housed in magnificent double-towered mausoleum…<br />
<br />
100+ miles northwest across another empty cornscape there hoves into view the oasis of Champaign-Urbana: an unprepossessing college town housing a library of over 10 million volumes. Even the smallest of these land grant universities—UVt or Wyoming’s isolated Laramie—can boast collections, resources, facilities, & ambitions that most ancient European establishments can only envy.”
colleges  universities  education  learning  us  libraries  europe  comparison  highereducation  highered  nationaltreasures  books  collections  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
The Principal Difference: A School Leadership Blog by Mel Riddile: PISA: It's Poverty Not Stupid
"A more accurate assessment of the performance of U.S. students would be obtained by comparing the scores of American schools with comparable poverty rates to those of other countries." [See charts.]

"The results of the latest PISA testing should raise serious concerns.  However, the overall ranking of 14th in reading is not the reason to be concerned. The problem is not as much with our educational system as it is with our high poverty rates. The real crisis is the level of poverty in too many of our schools and the relationship between poverty and student achievement. Our lowest achieving schools are the most under-resourced schools with the highest number of disadvantaged students. We cannot treat these schools in the same way that we would schools in more advantaged neighborhoods or we will continue to get the same results. The PISA results point out that the U.S. is not alone in facing the challenge of raising the performance of disadvantaged students."
pisa  education  poverty  research  reading  policy  us  comparison  international  finland  learning  2010  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Google Labs - Books Ngram Viewer
google  books  statistics  tools  visualization  wcydwt  classideas  history  language  words  comparison  googlebooks  charts  graphs  ngramviewer  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
YouTube - Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - BBC Four
2010  animation  bbc  hansrosling  statistics  visualization  classideas  wealth  health  comparison  history  economics  industrialization  industrialrevolution  wwi  ww2  from delicious
december 2010 by robertogreco
Annie Dillard and the Writing Life by Alexander Chee - The Morning News
"If I’ve done my job…you won’t be happy w/ anything you write for the next 10 years…not because you won’t be writing well, but because I’ve raised your standards for yourself. Don’t compare yourselves to each other. Compare yourself to Colette, Henry James, or Edith Wharton. Compare yourselves to classics. Shoot there.<br />
<br />
She paused here…another of her fugue states. & then she smiled. We all knew she was right.<br />
<br />
Go up to the place in the bookstore where your books will go, she said. Walk right up & find your place on the shelf. Put your finger there, & then go every time.<br />
<br />
In class, the idea seemed ridiculous. But at some point after the class ended, I did it. I walked up to the shelf. Chabon, Cheever. I put my finger between them & made a space. Soon, I did it every time I went to a bookstore.<br />
<br />
Years later, I tell my own students to do it. As Thoreau, someone she admires very much, once wrote, “In the long run, we only ever hit what we aim at.” She was pointing us there."
via:lukeneff  anniedillard  creativity  writing  writers  teaching  education  advice  reading  learning  craft  alexanderchee  classideas  expectations  comparison  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Infrastructural Ecologies: Principles for Post-Industrial Public Works : Places: Design Observer
"In prioritizing private over public transportation and short-changing cleaner energy projects, ARRA has undercut the Obama administration's claim to support a green economy. Still more worrisome, unbalanced investments that favor the old over the new position us unfavorably in comparison to other industrialized nations, which are investing heavily in public transit and renewable energy. [4] Worse yet, they perpetuate America’s disproportionately high per-capita carbon dioxide emissions: approximately 20 metric tons to Europe’s 9 and India’s 1.07. [5] Ultimately, of course, ARRA was more stop-gap compromise than comprehensive vision — and no doubt the hard-fought result of tense partisan politics. Still, ARRA 2009 will be remembered as a tragically missed opportunity at a pivotal moment in national history."
hillarybrown  architecture  infrastructure  investment  urbanism  post-industrial  landscape  ecology  future  planning  barckobama  2009  arra  economics  policy  publicworks  construction  design  transportation  us  comparison  europe  missedopportunities  public  publictransit  emissions  sustainability  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Your city sucks! (And so does mine) – stu.mp
"I very much enjoyed my time in the Pacific Northwest and would recommend checking out both Portland and Seattle. I’m slightly biased towards Seattle because I prefer bigger, denser cities. I didn’t like Boulder at all due to the cold climate and small size of the city.<br />
<br />
As a result, I’m sticking with San Francisco, despite poop filled bananas, because it’s a big, dense city filled with a bunch of weirdos who love building great technology."
via:cervus  sanfrancisco  seattle  cascadia  portland  boulder  colorado  comparison  california  cities  living  moving  technology  bayarea  entrepreneurship  pacificnorthwest  losangeles  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
The Answer Sheet - What other countries are really doing in education
"To summarize:<br />
<br />
*More emphasis on the whole child, physical education, the arts, fostering talents and citizen skills.<br />
<br />
*Less emphasis on numeracy and literacy or testing<br />
<br />
*Greater respect for teachers, the profession and their role as partners in educational reform.<br />
<br />
I wonder if these people would be interested in putting together a manifesto?"
daltonmcguinty  canada  singapore  us  finland  education  policy  reform  2010  learning  schools  publicschools  numeracy  literacy  wholechild  tcsnmy  art  arts  creativity  teaching  respect  seanslade  international  comparison  timolankinen  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Flavorwire » Daily Dose Pick: Where Children Sleep
"Photographer James Mollison’s Where Children Sleep documents the personal spaces of kids around the world, from the middle-class and prosperous to the strikingly impoverished.<br />
<br />
Over the course of four years, Mollison captured more than a hundred images of children and their bedrooms, with support from independent organization Save the Children. Born in Kenya and raised in England, the artist lives and works in Italy, with his own multicultural upbringing inspiring this moving collection of photos spanning countries as diverse as Senegal, Lesotho, Nepal, China, India, Brazil, and the United States.<br />
<br />
Visit the Mollison’s website, read a review of Where Children Sleep, learn more about Save the Children, and buy a copy of the book."
children  culture  photography  photojournalism  world  international  poverty  wealth  comparison  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Cities - Radiolab
"In this hour of Radiolab, we take to the street to ask what makes cities tick.<br />
<br />
There's no scientific metric for measuring a city's personality. But step out on the sidewalk, and you can see and feel it. Two physicists explain one tidy mathematical formula that they believe holds the key to what drives a city. Yet math can't explain most of the human-scale details that make urban life unique. So we head out in search of what the numbers miss, and meet a reluctant city dweller, a man who's walked 700 feet below Manhattan, and a once-thriving community that's slipping away."
cities  radiolab  2010  math  physics  nyc  collapse  urban  urbanism  jonahlehrer  size  footfall  comparison  statistics  data  measurement  tolisten  from delicious
november 2010 by robertogreco
Paris vs New York, a tally of two cities
"A friendly visual match between those two cities, as seen by a Parisian-based-and-lover on New York : details, cliches and contradictions. This way, please."
graphicdesign  comparison  nyc  paris  posters  visualization  humor  illustration  cities  blogs  from delicious
october 2010 by robertogreco
Question: What makes us feel wealthy? | Marketplace From American Public Media
"In a second question posed to financial psychologist Ted Klontz and the Wall Street Journal's Robert Frank, Tess Vigeland asks what it is that makes people feel wealthy. It turns out, the fact that many don't believe they're rich may be the problem."
wealth  perspective  comparison  psychology  money  taxes  incomegap  income  from delicious
october 2010 by robertogreco
Oh DADT! You rascal. | Dinosaurs and Narrative [via: http://scudmissile.tumblr.com/post/1363927791/oh-dadt-you-rascal]
"Well DADT is back in place, we better be careful, not only can we not have openly gay members of our military destroying unit cohesion, neither can we risk alliances with nations that could potentially have our troops working side by side their horribly demoralizing gay troops.<br />
<br />
Therefore we must end our alliances with Albania, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. (which is most of NATO,) Australia, Colombia, Honduras, Hungary, Philippines, and Poland cannot be part of a second coalition of the willing. Neither Ireland nor New Zealand are proper American allies either.<br />
<br />
Instead we should ally only with countries that deny openly gay women and men to defend their countries, such as Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and Pakistan."
2010  dadt  military  policy  gayrights  us  international  comparison  from delicious
october 2010 by robertogreco
true-size-of-africa.jpg 2482×1755 pixels [The True Size of Africa]
Quote Robin Sloan: "no. way."
africa  visualization  geography  infographics  maps  mapping  scale  classideas  comparison  distortion  misconception  filetype:jpg  media:image  from delicious
october 2010 by robertogreco
Higher education and wages: Study leave | The Economist [Chart]
"YOUNG people often worry whether the qualification for which they are studying will stand them in good stead in the workplace. According to the OECD, college and university leavers are better placed in the labour market than their less educated peers, but this advantage is not even in all countries. Young graduates living in Spain are particularly likely to end up taking low-skilled work, while those in Luxembourg rarely take anything other than a graduate job. American and British students appear to have the biggest incentive to study: British graduates aged 25-34 earn $57,000 on average. Their Swedish peers earn $37,400."
education  college  colleges  universities  credentials  salaries  comparison  us  uk  sweden  labor  overeducated  work  markets  international  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
What Salary Buys Happiness in Your City? - Real Time Economics - WSJ
"A new study that shows income after a worker earns $75,000 the measurable effect on happiness of pay increases stops has gained a lot of attention, but that figure may vary widely from city to city.<br />
<br />
As our colleague Robert Frank notes on the Wealth Report, $75,000 in New York doesn’t buy as much as the same amount in, say, South Dakota. That got us thinking, if $75,000 is the national average salary level for happiness, what is the variation from city to city?"
happiness  income  money  data  costofliving  well-being  salaries  us  cities  comparison  diminishingrewards  wealth  nyc  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
A Taste of Home in Foil Packets and Powder - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com
"Troops from nearly 50 lands dine on combat meals in Afghanistan — each reminding them of where they’d rather be."

[This links to images of meals from 15 different countries. The article is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/weekinreview/05gilbertson.html via: http://charliefinn.tumblr.com/post/1070455364/a-taste-of-home-in-foil-packets-and-powder ]
food  afghanistan  rations  military  us  australia  britain  canada  denmark  germany  italy  lithuania  poland  spain  sweden  norway  ukraine  comparison  2010  classideas  from delicious
september 2010 by robertogreco
Matrix 2 - Search
"Find the best flight deals with Matrix<br />
<br />
Matrix is where we'll showcase some of the freshest travel search ideas from ITA Software. We’re constantly updating it, so let us know what you think. If you prefer, you can still access the original version.<br />
Here are just a few of our innovative shopping features — try them for yourself.<br />
<br />
* Geo Search – search by airport code, city, or nearby airport selector<br />
* Event Finder – plan your trip with a listing of events and things to do<br />
* Interactive Calendar – explore date ranges and find the lowest fares<br />
* Real-time Filters – focus on flights that suit your preferences<br />
* Color-coded Time Bars – compare flights at a glance"
airlines  airfare  flights  matrix  shopping  comparison  travel  aggregator  iphone  applications  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
Comparing Brazil and the United States: American brothers | The Economist
"OTHER Latin Americans think of Brazilians a bit like the rest of the world thinks of Americans: loud, flashy & rich. This is as it should be, because a strong argument can be made that Brazil is actually is the US—just disguised beneath a Carmen-Miranda-style fruit hat. Sounds a stretch? [long list of similarities]…Obviously, list of dissimilarities would be as long as your arm…a big difference lies in the inheritance from the colonial power. Britain bequeathed to the United States a language; a legal system; a political elite (WASPs); a middle-class liking for commerce; a tradition of political liberalism (in the British sense); and a certain puritanical impulse. Portugal bequeathed Brazil the language and Catholicism. And that is about it. Brazil itself developed the rest. And it did so with something that most of the United States lacks: a Dionysian spirit, a happy sense that all the squalor and conflict will end—or at least be suspended—in a samba."
brasil  us  comparison  england  portugal  colonialism  coloniallegacy  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
InvisibleHand
"InvisibleHand Add-on Always Gets You the Lowest Price<br />
InvisibleHand shows a discreet notification when the product you're browsing can be bought for a lower price elsewhere. It gives you a link directly to the product page at the competing retailer." [via: http://scudmissile.tumblr.com/post/956734600/my-new-favorite-browser-extension]
extensions  comparison  ecommerce  firefox  safari  chrome  browser  amazon  addons  extension  prices  pricing  shopping  shop  plugins  price  money  online  invisiblehand  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
Kindle and iPad Displays: Up close and personal. | BIT-101
Updated with microscope images of newsprint, magazine and book too.
microscope  ipad  kindle  ebook  ebooks  display  comparison  screen  eink  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
Abogo Transportation Cost
"Abogo is a tool that lets you discover how transportation impacts the affordability and sustainability of where you live." [via: http://www.good.is/post/is-your-neighborhood-transportation-smart/]
economics  housing  transportation  transit  maps  mapping  comparison  sustainability  from delicious
august 2010 by robertogreco
I Write Like
"Check what famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of the famous writers.
analysis  language  literature  comparison  writing  fun  english  authors  classideas  via:robinsloan 
july 2010 by robertogreco
San Francisco vs. San Diego: Which is the better getaway? - latimes.com
"Reporting from San Diego and San Francisco —
sanfrancisco  sandiego  comparison  classideas  california  travel  offcampustrips 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Stephen Fry: What I wish I'd know when I was 18 on Vimeo
[via: http://gnatgnat.com/2010/07/not-so-secretman-crush/]
socialnetworking  stephenfry  success  goals  advice  philosophy  self  culture  interview  life  love  technology  egocentrism  interested  interestingness  wisdom  schools  blame  humor  inspiration  introspection  ineed  whining  learning  bookcrossing  teaching  tcsnmy  toshare  topost  perspective  heroes  admiration  notimpressed  negativism  noticing  observation  travelabroad  travel  comparison  knowledge  truth  criticalthinking  skepticism  experience  inquiry  empiricism  experimenting  questioning  authority  fundamentalism 
july 2010 by robertogreco
Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » The Genius of Messi [via: http://kottke.org/10/06/the-genius-of-messi]
"I measure soccer against the sports I have grown up loving, and it seems to me that that soccer — a bit like baseball — is defined by failure. Most corner kicks don’t find a teammate’s head. Most crosses into the box are too long or too short or turned away. Most shots are not aimed for the upper right-hand corner. Most runs end up being stuffed a long way from the goal. Most goals are the result of a staggering blunder — either by the defenders or the goalkeeper or the linesman who missed offside or awarded a shaky penalty kick or gave a free kick in a dangerous place. One somewhat cynical soccer commentator told me that what I need to understand is that every single goal, even the most brilliant of them, is the result of an error somewhere along the way. I suppose there are pitching coaches who would say the same thing about home runs."
football  soccer  sports  messi  via:kottke  failure  beauty  comparison 
june 2010 by robertogreco
iPhone’s Missing Feed Reader – Shawn Blanc
"Half the apps on my iPhone’s Home screen alone involve reading as a predominant, if not exclusive, feature. Mail, Messages, Safari, Tweetie, Instapaper Pro, Simplenote, and Reeder: these are my most-used apps, and each one is used for reading in some way or another. And yet the app which serves no other purpose than to read, seems to be the most frustrating to use for said purpose. ... It is my safe assumption that readers of this website also prefer apps which do less, but do it well. And so read on for a high-level look at some of the more popular iPhone feed readers, what I find good and not-so-good about them, and my suggestions for amelioration."
reedie  netnewswire  googlereader  googleapps  feedreader  aggregation  iphone  applications  rss  reading  reader  news  comparison 
june 2010 by robertogreco
Nine Myths about Socialism in the US | CommonDreams.org
"When you look at how the US compares to these 30 countries [OECD], the hot air myths about the US government going all out towards socialism sort of disappear into thin air. Here are some examples of myths that do not hold up.
socialusm  us  disparity  wealth  statistics  health  oecd  comparison  government  politics  class  poverty  foreignaid 
april 2010 by robertogreco
$11,000 for the First Apple Portable Computer! The Real Cost of Apple Products - What's the Big Deal?
"On the eve of Apple's iPad launch, we thought it would be interesting to see whether the cost of the iPad really is an 'unbelievable price' compared to previous Apple product launches.
visualization  infographics  inflation  infographic  statistics  apple  computers  mac  money  prices  gadgets  comparison  hardware  ipod  iphone  ipad 
april 2010 by robertogreco
10 Facts on US Health Care « rtstrategy
"1. US is only industrialized nation not to have Universal Health Care 2. Three “third-world” countries currently implementing Universal Health Care: India, South Africa, Mexico 3. Approx 45.7 million US residents have no health insurance = population of Texas, Florida, Oklahoma combined 4. US DOES provide Universal Health Care in three states: Mass, Iraq, Afghanistan 5. World Health Organization ranks US health care system as worlds highest in cost per person 6. WHO ranks US health care system as worlds 2nd most expensive in terms of proportion of income spent on health care per person (#1 = East Timor, population 1.1 million, recovering from war of independence) 7. WHO ranks US health care system as 37th in overall performance 8. WHO ranks US as 72nd in overall level of health 9. 2009 Harvard study found 44,800 excess deaths annually in US due to Americans lacking health insurance 10. Over 62% of US personal bankruptcies are attributed, at least in part, to health care costs"
us  healthcare  health  comparison  policy  universalhealthcare  world  statistics 
march 2010 by robertogreco
This Week In Education: Thompson: The Equality Trust [via: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=51768]
"Just as out-of-school effects trump schools' & teachers' contributions to learning, equality & inequality trumps economic wealth in creating livable society. Americans living in more equal states live around 4 years longer than those in more unequal states."
inequality  disparity  income  economics  well-being  education  comparison  us  statistics  world  international 
february 2010 by robertogreco
Why Tumblr is kicking Posterous’s ass « PEG on Tech
"Posterous has everything to win:...Y Combinator company...top-tier investors...founders experienced software engineers w/ compsci degrees from Stanford. How come it’s eating dust from small startup by high school dropout?...Tumblr is a NY company & Posterous is a SV company...Posterous...engineered product...Tumblr...designed product. Posterous is extremely well engineered...nothing wrong with it...well thought out. But it’s not just that it’s less pretty (though it is). It’s just not designed as well as Tumblr is...Posterous is typical of the SV engineering mindset where everything is measured, ranked, weighted. It’s like Google. & having terrible design like Google is great if you have a technology edge. But if you’re in a market where what matters is design edge, that’s not enough. There needs to be great design...how it works for end user. Meanwhile, Tumblr is typical of new NY startups, that have great engineering talent, but care about design, UI & UX."
blogging  siliconvalley  usability  technology  webdesign  startups  posterous  design  business  ux  webdev  strategy  newyork  comparison  interface  interaction  blogs  engineering  web  tumblr  ui 
january 2010 by robertogreco
Tuttle SVC: RttT Input Meeting Impressions
"I stuck around for LDH's [Linda Darling-Hammond] afternoon presentation on international perspectives on high school assessment. Her line of argument strikes me as airtight and devastating, striking right at the heart of the whole "competitiveness" premise for reform. The school systems around the world that are outperforming us (supposedly) simply aren't anything like the one that "reformers" are advocating.
lindadarling-hammond  assessment  reform  rttt  education  policy  comparison  international  us  highschool  competitiveness 
november 2009 by robertogreco
Tale of Two Freshmen « Re-educate
“son is freshman in college...dear friend’s nephew is a freshman in college as well. That’s about where the similarity ends...My son is thriving...never received any grades in middle or high school...didn’t take the SAT...encouraged & mentored to discover his interests & build on his strengths...developed intrinsic motivation & commitment to personal integrity...nephew is floundering. She thinks he may be depressed...wondering why he’s even in school? When asked what he cares about or wants to pursue, he comes up blank...unaccustomed to those kinds of questions; he’s been too busy following script to get into college...Paradoxically...thrived in high school...4.0 GPA, AP classes, high test scores & choice of at least a few selective colleges...family supported him in doing everything they believed would get him into a “good” school...thought that was key to his future success. As parents, we’re always focused on doing what’s best for our kids. But what if what we think is best, isn’t?”
education  intrinsicmotivation  grades  grading  assessment  colleges  universities  admissions  burnout  schools  schooling  standardizedtesting  sat  interests  comparison  anecdote  parenting  depression  cv  tcsnmy  lcproject  learning  deschooling  unschooling  alternative 
november 2009 by robertogreco
ZaidLearn: The Finnish Education System Rocks! Why?
"In short, Singapore and Finland have become world renowned for their education systems, but interestingly they have achieved their success using quite different approaches (to say it mildly!). To get the juicy details of both, please read Amran Noordin's 6-part series mentioned above."
education  teaching  finland  singapore  comparison  systems  change  analysis  schools  policy 
october 2009 by robertogreco
Education in Singapore and Finland: a comparison Part 1 ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
"This chart speaks volumes. It compares education in Singapore and Finland. Note the one area where they are the same. Yup: equal opportunities and free or heavily subsidized."
finland  singapore  education  schools  policy  publicschools  learning  government  curriculum  comparison 
september 2009 by robertogreco
BrightScope | 401k Plan Ratings
"BrightScope quantitatively rates 401k plans and gives plan sponsors, advisors, and participants tools to make their plans better.
401k  investment  evaluation  ratings  analytics  comparison  finance  statistics  money  savings  personalfinance 
september 2009 by robertogreco
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, U.S. Department of Education
"on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction...difference btwn student outcomes for online & face-to-face classes...was larger in studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online & face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face..blended conditions often included additional learning time & instructional elements not received by students in control conditions...suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se...unexpected finding was small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings" [via:http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/]
education  learning  elearning  e-learning  technology  comparison  teaching  onlinelearning  pedagogy  trends  research  blendedlearning  online  study  filetype:pdf  media:document 
august 2009 by robertogreco
3σ → Left: Teaching Hours - Are We Educators Or Are We Babysitters?
"I've been in schools in three other countries, and the teacher day is nothing like ours. Much more time for meetings, planning by one's self, and planning with others. I've looked up the data, and the difference is huge: we American teachers spend way too much time in front of students over the course of the year. Even with our (generally) shorter school year (days per year), we are in front of students more than any other country listed by the data from the OECD. (see chart - click on it to make it larger)"
teaching  work  hours  tcsnmy  education  statistics  comparison  whatswrongwiththispicture  planning  us  oecd  lessonplanning  policy  productivity  well-being 
august 2009 by robertogreco
Healthcare Blue Book
"The Healthcare Blue Book is a free consumer guide to help you determine fair prices in your area for healthcare services. If you pay for your own healthcare, have a high deductible or need a service your insurance does not fully cover, we can help. The Blue Book will help you find fair prices for surgery, hospital stays, doctor visits, medical tests and much more."
healthcare  medicine  shopping  consumer  comparison  money  health  budget  insurance  costs  pricing  medical  dental 
august 2009 by robertogreco
Half an Hour: Dumb Money or Dumb Coverage?
Stephen Downes takes down Newsweek's "Dumb Money" [http://www.newsweek.com/id/209962] analysis of education reform. Some great reference links in there too.
stephendownes  education  reform  newsweek  finland  toronto  canada  policy  us  germany  comparison  money  salaries  teaching  learning  schools  achievementgap  testing  assessment  classsize  technology  politics 
august 2009 by robertogreco
What Makes a Good Fourth-Grade Reader? Knowledge ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
"These were comparative literacy studies conducted of grade 4 students in 2001 & 2006. Willingham writes, "Hong Kong ranked 14th among 35 participating countries in the 2001 administration of the test. In 2006, HK students ranked second among 44 nations." In case you are wondering, the top-rated country according to the report was Russia. Not only that, Russia climbed from 528 in 2001 - the same place as HK - all the way to 565, one better than HK. Why not focus on Russia? Or maybe some other top-scoring jurisdictions, like Alberta & Ontario, Canada. That makes up your top four. But Willingham can't use that (or other countries, like Hungary, Luxembourg & Sweden, all of which fare better than the US) as his sample, because they don't support his hypothesis. Quite the opposite. What unites these countries - and differentiates them from the U.S. and other lower scoring countries - is social and economic equity (see figure 6 on page 14 where this correlation is very clearly established)."
testing  assessment  reading  class  economics  society  education  schools  research  stephendownes  comparison  international  global 
july 2009 by robertogreco
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