• About Me

    I’m an opinionated Grumpy Old Man. I enjoy the intellectual give and take that goes along with that, but have very little patience for stupid people (Note: there is a big difference between “stupid” and “educated”. Some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met have a PhD…). Beside arguing, I like to build things in almost any media. Right now I’m mostly building in wood, Lego, and a bunch of different electronic media. I teach in a number of different venues - from preschool all the way through graduate school. Subjects range from talmud to neuroscience to engineering.

    For fun, I like to bash people with swords (OK, so they’re made of foam. It’s still fun). Although I spend a lot of my time in a wheelchair, I manage to keep pretty active (Like bashing people with swords). I am a libertarian, and have a hard time finding anything good to say about government or politicians. OK, politicians might make good sausage, but that's about as good as it gets.

    Cope

  • VOTE!

    The question: Sould I use more graphics in my posts? I'm lazy, so I don't use them too o ften. If you think more pics would make the blog better, let me know! Simply let me know - email sphyrnatudevote@gmail.com with your vote!

  • Ask Dr. Science has MOVED

    Dr. Science now has his own Blog, so cruise on over to: http://askdoctorscience.wordpress.com to see what's cooking in the lab!

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  • Meta

Turn off the TV!

Posted on June 12, 2007 by sphyrnatude

While blog surfing, I ran into this article:
http://southernmuslimah.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/children-and-tv-my-week-without-television/
Apparently a young mom ended up without TV for a week, and suddenly realized how much the tube influences her kids behavior.
     As a parent with no access to TV (by choice), I’m not that surprised at her findings. I will admit that my family occasionally sits down [...]

Filed under: family, parenting | 1 Comment »

What is “critical thinking” and how do I teach it?

Posted on June 12, 2007 by sphyrnatude

     “Critical Thinking” “problem solving” “deductive reasoning” these are all nice phrases, but what do they mean? Everyone I’ve spoken to agrees that the public schools completely fail to teach these skills. The problem is, no one seems to be able to actually define what they are. Sure, the schools pretty much only teach “facts” [...]

Filed under: School, family, life, parenting, teach | 1 Comment »