Daily Kos University, vol. 69

Thanks to jlms qkw for guest hosting last week

A lot of good teaching goes on at dailyKos.  But a lot of it doesn't get read by everyone who wants to read it, because diaries scroll by so fast.
This series is about diaries that teach and about things you want to learn.  Could be any subject - an academic subject, a skill, a hobby, almost anything - but not diaries that simply inform, or it would include all of daily kos.

What I do is, each week, search for the tags 'teaching' and 'learning' and go through jotter's lists for diaries that teach.  Then I'll post the list, with perhaps some brief comment, and open the floor to people who want to learn something specific.

You can help me by tagging diaries with 'teaching' or 'learning' when you see diaries that merit those tags, by reminding me of what I've missed, by recommending this diary, and by commenting.

OK.....here we go, alphabetically by diarist

annetteboardman noticed that finally, it's Spring in Friday night at the movies

anotherdemocrat tells us about her hill country ride for AIDS in Fitness Monday

A Siegel asks us to join a conversation on energy

Asinus asinum fricat brought us water news, told us about poverty environmental degradation in the South and took us on a culinary tour of the Maghreb

blue jersey mom guest hosted Frugal Fridays with a diary on eldercare  

boran2 has volume 143 of Saturday painting palooza

cfk talked about love in this week's bookflurries

claude has volume 2.38 of Saturday morning home repair

dolfin66 talked about fat and learning

emeraldmaiden took care of a little housekeeping in this week's WAYWO (what are you working on)

Frankenoid has volume 4.11 of Saturday morning garden blogging

lineatus takes us Birdblogging with spring favorites

Mark H continued his Marine Life Series with coconut crabs

mole333 told us about Yom Ha Shoah (holocaust rememberance day

Neon Vincent brought us Science Saturday

Nova Land guest hosted Sunday puzzle blogging with I'm b-a-c-k

occams hatchet talked about the best political movies in Friday night at the movies

panicbeam told us how your job history is for sale

Someone named plf515 asked What are you reading?

stormbear brought us four Black History diaries:
southerners contemplate manual labor
sing your way to a contraband camp
first shots of the civil war and
emancipation

StrangeAnimals told us how to prevent childhood obesity in a fairly new series: Thursday night weekly health care

The BBQ Chicken Madness started a new series on the state of alternative energy with plasma arc power plants

Translator asked what is up with these dandelions?, he also told us about the phases of matter in his Fun with Nature series

Unitary Moonbat told us about role playing games, the crusades, and Moonbat's book in History for Kossacks

Valtin discussed hunting down war criminals

WI deadhead told us how to survive your cube

•  Tip jar

  tips, comments, recommends....

  tell us what you want to learn

  by plf515 on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:08:53 AM PDT

•  My fault on tagging ...

  Join a Conversation on Energy probably fits the bill ...

  by A Siegel on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:20:02 AM PDT

•  What I want to know is what Occams Hatchet

  means?  I am reading a book, SPY by Ted Bell (don't bother) and in it two characters are trying to break a code.  One character says "Humans naturally look for complexity where none exists.  Whilst I, on the other hand, subscribe to William of Occam's point of view."  And further elaborating, he says "A medieval philosopher, Alex.  His principle, widely known as Occam's Razor, stated that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed."  "...In other words, choose the simplest path through the forest."

  For a moment, I thought I had an AHA! moment, but no.

  by JFinNe on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:27:13 AM PDT

  •  It means, more or less

    that as Einstein said we should 'make things as simple as possible, but not simpler'

    by plf515 on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:30:20 AM PDT

    •  Occam's hatchet and razor both have

      the same meaning?

      by JFinNe on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:33:29 AM PDT

      •  I don't want to speak for him

        but I'd guess the handle is a sort of snarky thing, exaggerating the 'razor' into a 'hatchet'.  But it's probably best to find a recent comment by him and ask

        by plf515 on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:42:33 AM PDT

        •  simply put,

          he has an axe to grind with explanations that either are conspiracy theories or are simply too simple?

          by agnostic on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:49:08 AM PDT

    •  Hey! One of my favorite E quotes.

      I must use that at least twice a month.

      But the version I use is "simple as they need to be, but not one bit simpler".

      Asked to explain this, I generally say "If you try to over-simplify the complex, you make things more complicated".

      by koNko on Sat May 03, 2008 at 09:31:25 AM PDT

      •  The Proof.

        Would be Mrs. Ko explaining directions while refusing to let me see her GPS phone when we're out for a walk.

        by koNko on Sat May 03, 2008 at 09:38:49 AM PDT

      •  According to

        wikiquote the real quote is

        It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience

        by plf515 on Sat May 03, 2008 at 11:23:27 AM PDT

        •  Great.

          Now I can totally confuse people.

          by koNko on Sun May 04, 2008 at 03:39:01 AM PDT

  •  he was a philosopher

    and at the time he was philosophizing (I believe that is a word) most of the other contemporary philosophers had these wild ideas with a ton of intricate premises. He "took a razor" to them, cutting them all off.

    Essentially, it is the proposition that the theory that is most simple and adequately supported is the most likely to be true.

    by jackbauer8393 on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:59:28 AM PDT

•  Thanks for reviving my diaries!

  Warmest regards, Doc.

  by Translator on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:29:41 AM PDT

•  Thanks for hosting this.

  Another OND: Science Saturday will be up tonight.

  by Neon Vincent on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:40:53 AM PDT

•  psst - the link for WI deadhead's "How to survive

  your cube" goes to Unitary Moonbat's piece.  Now, UM's piece is worth a second read, to be sure, but...

  by lineatus on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:43:32 AM PDT

  •  Thanks, fixed n/t

    by plf515 on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:50:35 AM PDT

    •  Some words of wisdom there... thanks for fixing!

      by lineatus on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:03:30 AM PDT

•  What an interesting idea for a diary

  I thank you for including my diary, and look forward at reading some of the others.

  A nice compendium for a busy person like me, who misses so much good that goes by when away for a day or two.

  by Valtin on Sat May 03, 2008 at 09:12:38 PM PDT