Finding news and information online

Here are some of my favorite online news and information aggregators related to mathematics.

• math overflow & math stackexchange
• hacker news
• slashdot
• /r/math & related subreddits (see sidebar)

I keep track of these (and everything else I'm subscribed to) with google reader. When I find something interesting I can save it, tweet it, or blog about it.  It's an efficient and organized way to sort through tons of information.

My Twitter Account was re-activated

From 23 May 2012 to 07 June 2012 my twitter account  @mathteacher1729 was suspended.

When I logged into http://twitter.zendesk.com it seems that the S-cause (Suspected, Suspended cause?) was a "Malware Attempt Report".

Fortunately all seems to be in working order now and all my tweets, retweets, favorites, followers, followees, and lists are all intact. I look forward to rejoining my professional learning network!

If you're interested, the string of emails is below (newer ones on top).


=================================================

Support, Jun 07 08:10 pm (PDT):
Hello,
It looks like this issue has been resolved. If you are still experiencing this issue, please open another ticket here: https://support.twitter.com/forms/general?subtopic=suspended
Thanks,
Twitter Trust and Safety

mathteacher1729, May 23 06:20 pm (PDT):
Hello,
I have reviewed the twitter rules and best practices and I still do not understand why my account was suspended.  I use my twitter account to grow my professional learning network, communicate with members of the education and mathematics community, share links related to math, science, physics, and occasionally juggling, etc.  Unless my account was hacked sometime between 23 May 2012 at ~ 4pm and the same day, several hours later at 9pm, I do not know why my account was suspended.
I sincerely hope it is brought back.  Thank you for your help and patience.
Sincerely,
Joe DiNoto
@mathteacher1729

________________________________
From: Twitter Support <notifications-support@twitter.zendesk.com>
To: mathteacher1729 <mathteacher1729@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:15 PM
Subject: # Twitter Support: update on "mathteacher1729 -- math & education account suspended 23 May 2012"

mathteacher1729, May 23 06:15 pm (PDT):
Regarding: Suspended account
Subject: mathteacher1729 -- math &amp; education account suspended 23 May 2012
Description of problem: Hello,
When I logged into twitter this evening, my account had been suspended. As far as I know, I did not violate any terms of service. I use my twitter account to grow my professional learning network of educators, share interesting links related to mathematics, physics, science &amp; education in general, and occasionally a video or two about juggling.
I hope that this suspension was in error and I hope my account is restored.
Full name: Joseph DiNoto
Twitter username: @mathteacher1729
Email address: mathteacher1729@yahoo.com
Phone number(optional): n/a



=================================================



Support, May 31 09:05 am (PDT):
Hello,
Your appeal has been reviewed and your account is scheduled for unsuspension within 24 hours. You may wish to review the Twitter Rules, located at twitter.com/rules.
Thanks,
Support

mathteacher1729, May 31 08:51 am (PDT):
Hello,
I have read through all of the rules and I still do not understand why my account was suspended.
I was neither being aggressive in following, nor did I receive an email from twitter stating that any such behavior was happening on my part.
I was following all twitter rules, and did not post anything that would have broken them.  I post math & education links and have math & education-related discussion with teachers and other professionals from around the world.
I did not receive any sort of spam email from someone claiming to be twitter.
I am sorry to post another ticket, but I have been cut off from a significant part of my professional learning network and can no longer share links & have quick discussions with my colleagues around the world and it's somewhat frustrating.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Joe
________________________________
From: Twitter Support <notifications-support@twitter.zendesk.com>
To: mathteacher1729 <mathteacher1729@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 11:44 AM
Subject: # Twitter Support: update on "Why was my account suspended?"

mathteacher1729, May 31 08:44 am (PDT):
Regarding: Suspended account
Subject: Why was my account suspended?
Description of problem: Sometime on 23 May between 4pm and 9m Eastern Time my twitter account @mathteacher1729 was suspended. I have no idea why this happened. I am a math teacher and use my twitter account to share links, videos, and information about math and education with other teachers and professionals.
If I did something wrong, I am very sorry -- but I sincerely do not understand why my account was suspended and I hope it can be restored as soon as possible, with all of my lists, followers, and followees intact.
Thank you,
Joe
Full name: Joe DiNoto
Twitter username: @mathteacher1729
Email address: mathteacher1729@yahoo.com
Phone number(optional): n/a

=================================================


Hello mathteacher1729!
We understand that you're contesting an account suspension. Please be sure to read this entire email; you will need to take further action in order to reopen your ticket and trigger a review of your account.
Twitter suspends accounts for a variety of reasons:
• If your account was suspended for aggressive following behavior, you should have received an email notification to the address associated with your Twitter account. You'll need to confirm that you've removed all prohibited following automation from your account, and will stop any manual aggressive following behavior. To expedite your appeal process, please review our Best Practices page if you haven't already, and then reply to this ticket with a confirmation that you understand our policies and will not engage in any prohibited following behavior.
• Please take a minute to review the Twitter Rules.
• If you received an email from admin@twitter.com saying 'you're being suspended' or that we're going delete your account, you're safe; the email is fake. More information here https://support.twitter.com/articles/204820-safety-fake-twitter-emails
• While we strive to avoid mistakes, it's also possible that your account was suspended in error. If after reviewing the Rules, you have no idea why your account was suspended, just reply to this email indicating as much, and we'll take another look at your case. Our apologies if the error turns out to be ours.
Thanks,
Twitter Trust & Safety
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responding to this email will reopen this ticket and put your ticket in queue for support. If you do not reply, your case will be closed. Note that you need to reply from the address this mail was sent to. If you use an alias (such as username+alias@gmail.com) to manage your account, ensure that your reply comes from the alias address or your ticket may not be seen by our support staff.
Please note, we cannot accept email attachments at this time; please include all information in the body of your request.
Your request summary is:

mathteacher1729, May 23 06:15 pm (PDT):
Regarding: Suspended account
Subject: mathteacher1729 -- math &amp; education account suspended 23 May 2012
Description of problem: Hello,
When I logged into twitter this evening, my account had been suspended. As far as I know, I did not violate any terms of service. I use my twitter account to grow my professional learning network of educators, share interesting links related to mathematics, physics, science &amp; education in general, and occasionally a video or two about juggling.
I hope that this suspension was in error and I hope my account is restored.
Full name: Joseph DiNoto
Twitter username: @mathteacher1729
Email address: mathteacher1729@yahoo.com
Phone number(optional): n/a

Why was my Twitter account suspended?!

Generally speaking, I don't like to use mixed punctuation, but I feel its use in the title of this blog post is called for.  

Sometime between 5pm and 9pm Eastern time Wed 23 May 2012, my Twitter account was suspended. 

This is what it looks like when your twitter account is suspended. :(

There was no warning or anything just -- boom. I filled out their form and from what I gather after reading this blog if my account is allowed to come back, I will have lost all of my lists, followers, and people I follow.

This is frustrating, but perhaps good, as it will allow me to focus on other things such as blogging and creating youtube videos.

I hope to be back soon.

Cheers,
Joe

Three problems, Three solutions

The following is my opinion.

There are three significant problems facing the USA.

1. "The Economy"
2. "Healthcare"
3. "The Wars"

I believe the solution to these problems will never be reached by legislation alone, even if our legislators were able to work in perfect harmony with one another. That is because I believe that "a nation is its people" and that a nation with a high proportion of self disciplined and critical thinking individuals is desirable. 

If the USA wishes to solve problems 1 through 3, then it should do everything in its power to ensure all students learn the following by the time they are of voting age. 

1. Have a solid understanding of personal finance.  This includes, but is not strictly limited to:
• Be able to draft and adhere to a personal budget including: estimating gross & net wages, rent, utilities, transportation, food, loans, etc. 
• Be able to live on ~80% of what you take home after taxes. 
• Be able to understand how interest rates & loans work. 
• Understand relative orders of magnitude - million, billion, trillion, etc. 
2. Understand how the human body works and practice healthy habits. 
• Food = Fuel.  Garbage in, garbage out.  
• Don't do hard drugs at all and if you choose to do soft drugs (including alcohol & tobacco), do so responsibly. Don't mix drugs & operating vehicles or guns!
• Exercise is key. 30 minutes of waking per day can do wonders for you!
• Understand how the human reproductive system works and the biological perils of sex (STDs, babies). Birth control, when properly & consistently used, can greatly reduce those risks, but never eliminate them. 
• Your body is yours and everyone (including yourself) should respect it!
3. Comparative religious studies, learn about the rise and fall of nations, and have international pen-pals. 
• Knowing the origins and stories behind the three Abrahamic faiths is useful because they are in one way or another deeply embedded in so many of the wars that are going on.  The similarities & differences between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity would be useful to highlight how one's own faith is similar to and different from the faith of those we're bombing/planning to bomb. 
• "Those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it." Egyptians, Mayans, Romans, Greeks, Ottomans... what happened? What made them rise & be great, what made them fall? How is any of that relevant to today's page in history?
• Having international pen-pals will help humanize people students may never interact with otherwise. This might help future generations realize that people are different from the governments who may (or may not) represent them. It's harder to ask for bombs to be dropped on a country where a friend lives.  This goes both ways. :) 

With a knowledge of personal finance an individual citizen is less likely to make mistakes or fall for tricks which led to the housing crisis and avert many people's general state of financial woe as well as help individuals have savings for a rainy day or week. With a knowledge of the human body a person can make intelligent decisions about their own health and stave off preventable illness at large. With an understanding of other cultures and religions, people might be more tolerant of the fact that not everyone thinks like they do and be less likely to want to go to war. 

These are my own opinions.  

Thank you for reading.  Discussion welcome!

Robot Fest 2012 pics & vids

This year I went to the annual http://www.robotfest.com/

Description from their website:

Robot Fest is an annual event for anyone interested in the creative use of technology. We welcome all roboticists, hackers, artists, hobbyists and makers of any age who have the unquenchable urge to develop and create new, previously unseen forms from lifeless electronics, fabrics and mechanical parts. Join the fun and excitement with hands-on exhibits, and workshops!

 It was super fun!  If you're a parent or a teacher of any STEM subject, please do whatever you can to attend one of these with your kid(s) and/or students!  There were plenty of opportunities for hands-on interaction ranging from:

• creating music with a theramin 
• using a hacked Microsoft Kinect to virtually manipulate a puppet or robotic arm
• playing battle-bots! (automated or remote-controlled)
• building and then listening to your own radio
• building and launching a rocket
• creating circuits with a play-doh like substance
• generating electric currents, comparing visible light to infrared, and lots more

There were activities which were suited for children of all ages, from k through college-level and adults!  From simply flipping a switch which causes some lights to blink to elaborate circuit diagrams and manipulating complex machinery, there was something for everyone.  People who enjoy seeing how things work would have a field day here, it was amazing and very enjoyable for yours truly. 

Below are some images and videos (click to enlarge)

cardboard cutout robots

The Enigma machine de-coder

The enigma machine!

Create your own radio!

HAM radio operators (the gentleman on the left was very friendly and informative).

Yours truly in infrared. I guess I have poor circulation in my hands?

Lego Battle-bots!

Makebot makin' a drawing.

No caption needed.  This was a fully functioning R2D2.

A makerbot making a 3d bunny.

Here are some happy robots.

Detailed (and functioning) scale model warships.

More warships.

Makerbot RepRap making a bunny. 

Non-Newtonian fluid in action

Makerbot drawing the robotfest logo.  (very meta)

Kinect demo. Wave your hands to manipulate the puppet.

White house vs. congress. I'm sure this is a metaphor for something.

Four battlebots duke it out!

Some videos I've made in the past month

Hello everyone,

In the past month I've made a few videos related to math and computers. Your comments, criticisms, and even requests for future videos are welcome!

Hope you're having a great weekend,
Joe DiNoto

LaTeX tutorial vid #13 -- common errors and how to correct them. Part of a series (full playlist here)

Happy Pi day! (The juggling of mathematics and why 31416 is a valid 3-ball pattern).

Exploring shifts & translations of an exponential function. y = a + b(1-exp(-cx)) Inspired by a student's question on Open Study.

Math RageComic - my reply to a comic about math confusion that's been making the rounds on the internet.

How to take an effective screenshot on a Windows computer. Many of my students want to know how to do this, so I finally made a video. :)

Three Goals

In addition to content mastery, these are the three goals I have for all students enrolled in AP & College level math at JHU CTY Online.

1. Improved articulation of mathematical thinking. 
2. Realizing there is no shame in asking questions.
3. Ability to find and use resources external to those directly provided in-class. 

(1) Many students enter calculus with a phenomenal ability to perform complex calculations in their heads and then write the (often correct) answer on the page without any indication of what thought process led them to this (often correct) conclusion.  I applaud and am impressed by this ability, but in AP & College level math I design my problems to have more than one solution and I want my students to be able to clearly articulate how exactly they arrived at theirs.  I wrote up a short "guide to mathematical writing" to help students understand what is expected of their mathematical writing. For example, in AP Calculus, I ask that students "explain all of your calculus reasoning, relevant algebraic steps, interpret your answer in the context of the problem, and don't show arithmetic please." I encourage students to use LaTeX, as many of them often go on to study a field of math, science, programming, or engineering. (here is the LaTeX starter guide and videos I created for them).  

(2) Asking questions is generally stigmatized (I blame awful legislation such as NCLB which forces teaching isolated facts on irrelevant tests) but among bright students it is even more of a social stigma. For a student who identifies him or herself as intelligent, it can be difficult to admit that you may not know something and having to ask someone, anyone, a question can be (internally) viewed as a weakness.  Of course, this is incorrect, but the myth persists and I always try to bust that myth whenever possible.  I ask students what software they are using, what programming languages they are studying, or what books they have ready or music they have listened to lately and let them know when "I've never heard of that before!". 

(3) Often a student will ask me a question only after they've read this or that section 20 times over or watched this or that video the same number of times and they still don't get it.  At that point I am glad to walk them through where their current understanding is, then give them a different perspective on the problem and they usually have an "ah-ha" moment.  I use that moment to explain the notion of using external resources -- if your book or video isn't doing it for you -- find another one!  I even built an entire website based around this concept.  Learning how to find and use external resources is a skill I wish I would have learned sooner, so the earlier I can get it to my students, the better off they are.

By the end of their class, many students often say that they felt truly challenged, but rarely frustrated, and that they feel glad that they can find a way to express all of the awesome mathematical ideas which have always been buzzing around their brain via graphs, LaTeX typesetting, animation/video, etc.  and that they are better able to avoid banging their head against the wall through focused searching for extra resources and not being afraid and/or ashamed to ask someone for help.  

Getting students to this point requires building a good rapport that is based on regular communication.  I take pride in the fact that I and my staff have success with this approach and that we are continually striving to get better.  

Thank you for reading and if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please feel free to contact me!  

Twitter @mathteacher1729

My student resources website