Is Algebra Necessary?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html

This Hacker has no clue...

US math education never recovered from "New Math" that emphasized mathematical structure through abstract concepts like set theory. That was the dumbest move educators ever made. This author might as well start another new math called "Hacker Math". When we hit the absolute bottom, the only way to go is up.

Calculators are the Bane of U.S. Math Education

Watched two algebra tutorials on YouTube just now... disturbing. There are easy ways to solve problems, and hard ways to solve problems. Jane will do those problems in her next math tutorials, without calculators.

Yiruma's Wait There

Five viewers have requested a tutorial for Wait There by Yiruma. Jane hesitates because one of her Yiruma slow tutorials was removed after 77,261 views and 76 comments. Should she take a chance again?

Well, 5 viewers, each from a different country - Netherlands, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, and U.S.

Okay, Jane will cave in and make the tutorial tomorrow. Hope her work doesn't go down the tube (pun intended) again.

Deadly Rampage in Aurora

Today, my heart aches. My brother's children grew up in peaceful Aurora. What's wrong with our leaders? don't they understand simple logic? Ban guns and none of these rampages could happen!

Who will be Subscriber # 20,000?

Jane wishes to give a prize just for fun. Ice cream cone? The number of bbdhrggl subscribers is 19,998 at this moment. Jane never ever expected her pet project, started April 2009, to continue beyond a few weeks. Life sure is strange. Jane thanks her viewers for subbing and hope they continue to enjoy playing the piano, and learning math.

Non-Newtonian Calculus

Mentioned the geometric slope in yesterday's tutorial, "What is Slope". There are many more slopes than we were taught. In the 1970's, my husband Michael and Robert Katz created systems of non-Newtonian calculus using different slopes. Thanks to the Internet, scientists are finding numerous applications, such as in economics, fractals, and imaging. A course on non-Newtonian calculus was conducted in the summer-term of 2012 by faculty of the Mathematical Image Analysis Group of Saarland University in Germany. Wikipedia math editors, eat your hearts out   :)