Radiation Sanity Chart

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

With news reports of radiation from Japan being found from California to Massachusetts — and now even in milk — math teachers need to help our students put it all in perspective.

xkcd to the rescue!

Pajamas Media offers a brief history of radiation, plus an analysis of our exposure in Banana Equivalent Doses:

And the EPA offers a FAQ:

[T]he levels being seen now are 25 times below the level that would be of concern even for infants, pregnant women or breastfeeding women, who are the most sensitive to radiation… At this time, there is no need to take extra precautions… Iodine-131 disappears relatively quickly in the environment.

— Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
pages 4-5 of EPA FAQ

[Hat tip: Why Homeschool.]

Can You Find These AWOL Math Websites?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
by √oхέƒx™ via flickr

In the course of my bloggy spring cleaning, I’ve made some terrible discoveries. Some of my favorite resources have disappeared off the internet. Or perhaps they’ve moved, and I just haven’t found their new homes.

Do you know where these websites went?

A Very Short History of Mathematics

This irreverant romp through the history of mathematics by W. W. O. Schlesinger and A. R. Curtis was read to the Adams Society (St. John’s College Mathematical Society) at their 25th anniversary dinner, Michaelmas Term, 1948.

Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine found a copy, but I’d love to replace this link with the article’s new location:

[Warning: Do not attempt to read this article while drinking coffee or other spittable beverage!]

Update: James Clare found the article’s new home here. Thank you!

Continue reading Can You Find These AWOL Math Websites?

Bloggy Spring Cleaning Continues

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Still on course with my state-sponsored blog overhaul, and Google Reader insists on displaying every old post as new. What a nuisance! The email feed seems unaffected. (And not everyone is having the problem with Reader, either — see Comments below.)

Amazon won the reader poll (and it’s my favorite, too), so I’m converting all my old affiliate book links to just-plain Amazon links. At the same time, I’m checking for dead links and other dust bunnies among the old posts. I’ve worked my way up to June 2007 — four more years to go — and then I’ll start on my blogroll (a monster task!) and other pages.

Like normal housecleaning, it never ends …

Does Anyone Know Where the La Habra Math Timeline Went?

The worst news so far is that the La Habra Math History Timeline has disappeared. What a shame! Does anyone out there know where it might have gone? I would love to link to its new site.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine, here’s a glimpse at the old site. Math discoveries, publications, and other tidbits — from paleolithic number bones to the present:

I changed the links on my Math Resources page to the wayback pages, too. My apologies to those who got sent to a junk site by the old, defunct links.

Poll: Where Do You Buy Books?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Thanks to our insolvent state government, I need to go back and change all my book links. I never made much from the Amazon affiliate program, but it usually managed to cover Kitten’s school books. Oh, well, at least they haven’t closed the public libraries … yet …

Since I’m changing the old links anyway, I thought I’d give you all a chance to voice your opinions. Shall I continue to reference Amazon.com, or would you rather my book links took you to Barnes & Noble?

P.S.: For my rss subscribers, I apologize for the flood of old posts. Every time I make a change, it seems the feed releases the post anew. I’m afraid this will continue for a few weeks, since I’m using the affiliate mess as an excuse to do other long-neglected blog clean-up tasks as well. With 596 published posts, that will take awhile. I hate housecleaning!

Support Your Favorite Blog Carnival!

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Photo by kevindooley.]

A math carnival is like “the shop-front of the mathematics blogging world” — a place to browse and enjoy all the wide variety of mathematics on the web. Blog carnival hosts put in several hours of work every month to bring you the riches of the internet.

If you blog about learning or teaching math from pre-school to pre-college, now is the time to send in your contribution for this month’s Math Teachers at Play carnival. We welcome posts from parents, teachers, homeschoolers, and students — anyone who is interested in playing around with school-level or recreational math. Each of us can help others learn, so in a sense we are all teachers.

Support The Carnivals

The math carnivals are a great resource for all of us who enjoy reading and learning about mathematics, and especially for math bloggers who appreciate the wider audience the carnivals provide. But blog carnivals do not happen by themselves — there is a lot of work involved.

Here’s how you can help:

  • Leave a comment to thank and encourage the host.
  • Link to and promote the carnival on your blog or social network.
  • Volunteer to host a future edition at your own blog.
  • How to Host a Blog Carnival

Mike at Walking Randomly has hosted the Carnival of Mathematics two of the last three months, and that’s not good for the long-term health of the carnival. If you’re interested in helping out, check the future hosts tab at the blog carnival page and pick a month that works for you, then email Mike and tell him you’re available.

Similarly, you can check on upcoming editions of the Math Teachers at Play carnival, and let me know if you’d like to host. Or contact Guillermo Bautista to volunteer for Mathematics and Multimedia.

Recent Math Blog Carnivals

Did you miss any of these recent blog carnivals? Delightful mathy browsing is only a click away…

For homeschooling or other educational carnivals, check out the Blog Parties for Teachers widget in my sidebar. Enjoy!

Our Power Outage Adventure

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[Photo by Nestor Galina.]

Our power finally came back on this afternoon after a couple of cold, dark nights.

Staying Warm

We heated the house with candles and stove-top burners (propane). We found that if you get enough candles lit in a room, it really can make a difference, and the stove was able to keep the kitchen in the upper-50’s, even above 60 degrees at times, which was pretty comfortable. We dressed in lots of layers and wore gloves, drank a plenty of coffee and hot chocolate, listened to oldies on the battery-powered radio, and went to bed early each night. (Hooray for sleeping bags!)

Continue reading Our Power Outage Adventure

Top 10 Posts of 2010

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Cartoon showing baby representing New Year 190...
Image via Wikipedia

2011 will be a fantastic year — or at least, a prime one! (See these posts by Gary, Pat, and James.) But as we move into the new year, it’s also a good time to look back and to look ahead: What did we accomplished last year? And what comes next?

More specifically, for bloggers:

  • What did people like to read?
  • How can I give them more of it?

So here is my retrospective look at the most popular blog posts of 2010, along with related blogging goals (or dreams?) for 2011.

Continue reading Top 10 Posts of 2010

Logic Games at Blogging 2 Learn

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
http://www.wpclipart.com/money/. Per the licen...
Image via Wikipedia

For the rest of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), my other blog is featuring a logic game or puzzle every day. So far, I’ve shared three of my online favorites:

And there’s plenty more fun to come. Drop in every day until December to see a new puzzle or game:

Hey, Look — I’m Famous!

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Do you Google yourself? It’s a good way to check up on your online reputation. I recently ran a search for my name, and who would have guessed I was so well known?

Actually, I’ve been editing my old “how to teach homeschool math” books, hoping to republish them someday, but I needed a break. So when I noticed the “create your own spoof” email from Swagbucks, I couldn’t resist. Hope you enjoyed it!