Insanity & Doom Update XXXIV

Special Extra Edition of Insanity & Doom! Have to find a way to empty my mailbox.

Item National Council of Math Teachers Annual Meeting

Taking a Knee in Mathematics Education: Moving from Equity Discourse to Protest and Refusal
Danny Bernard Martin, University of Illinois at Chicago

Friday, April 27 | 11:00 a.m.–Noon

I offer some thoughts on why equity-oriented discourse and practice are necessary but not sufficient responses to oppression and dehumanization in mathematics education. In various ways, equity-oriented reforms have maintained the status quo. I offer some additional thoughts on protest and refusal in mathematics education.

Oppression and dehumanization in mathematics education? As in requiring correct answers? Nevertheless, I hope this taking a knee catches on here, and in all subjects. Especially in colleges. We need far less cathedralized “education”.

Thanks to Ray Futrell for the tip.

Item Straight people don’t exist — so why do half of bisexual men fear coming out?

Today, Stonewall published their LGBT in Britain — Work Report which has found one in three LGBT people fear telling colleagues their sexuality or gender identity. Whilst this figure alone is shocking, the report found that some of the biggest issues are felt by bisexual men.

According to the survey, 49 percent of bi men are not out to anyone at work, compared to seven per cent of gay men and four per cent of lesbians…

What this really comes down to is society not understanding men well enough, in particular how their sexuality works. Recently researchers at Cornell University concluded that men are never 100pc straight. By measuring eye dilation when exposed to both male and female solo pornography, they came to the conclusions that “straight people do not exist.”…

Being bisexual is normal. Men may be used to having to appear a particular way to be perceived as strong but their sexuality is no more negotiable than their skin colour. Whether you see them or not, bisexual men are everywhere.

Yes. Eye dilation. Everybody enjoys non-reproductive sexual simulation because eye dilation. Sexual desire of dead bodies and animals, as is felt by many, is no more negotiable than their skin colour. Doubtless we can verify this by eye dilation. Like the sort of narrowing of slits that occurs right before a man starts swinging his sword. I do not mean sword metaphorically. Sword as in bladed object designed to lop heads off of demonic fools. I’ll emphasize this is Cornell.

Thanks to Arkanabar T’verrick Ilarsadin for the tip.

Item Autism Disorder Increases in U.S. Children, CDC Study Finds

U.S. autism prevalence has grown, according to a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, with about 1.7 percent of 8-year-olds affected in 11 states.

The study, based on 2014 research, again identifies New Jersey with the highest incidence. One in 34 children in that state, or 3 percent, fall on what’s called the autism spectrum, which encompasses a range of social, behavioral and learning disorders ranging from the barely noticeable to the profoundly debilitating.

Researchers aren’t sure what causes autism, although they suspect environmental risks or triggers. It has no cure. They caution that more children being diagnosed doesn’t necessarily mean that autism is becoming more common.

Too much soy in mom’s diet? Too much listening to NPR? More exposure leading to more mom’s dragging their kids to the doc? Or a fashionable diagnosis, like ADHD, which some are now saying does not exist. Or all of the above?

Item Counties with fracking have increased rates of sexually transmitted infections

Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health have discovered that the rates of two major sexually transmitted infections (STIs), gonorrhea and chlamydia, are 21% and 19% higher, respectively, in Ohio counties with high shale gas activity (“fracking”), compared to counties without any fracking. Rates of a third STI, syphilis, were not elevated.

This is what is known as scientific click bait. For just as the activists are ready to march, we read this:

Shale gas extraction is associated with large influxes of specialized, trained workers into rural areas to meet the labor demands of the drilling rigs, and commonly involves the formation of “work camps” composed of relatively young men. The influx of workers in these situations is thought to increase STI risk because male workers typically live and socialize in communities with masculinized social norms, do not bring families and thus have opportunities to seek other sex partners, and may have few emotional ties to the local community.

That’s a lot of words to say very little. This was a “study”. Published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Research” akin to the discovery that there is more dementia in Florida than in California.