Jayne is a girl's name.

River ,'Trash'


Natter Five-O: Book 'Em, Danno.  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


lori - Mar 07, 2007 6:09:42 pm PST #5808 of 10001

"committed"?!?! Whaddya mean?

Allyson, that is seriously awesome.


beth b - Mar 07, 2007 6:10:10 pm PST #5809 of 10001
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

yay Kathy!

yay Allison!

god, how I love good news!


Allyson - Mar 07, 2007 6:17:08 pm PST #5810 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica

Seriously. Hey, maybe when you vanity google this will beat Dogs In Elk!


lori - Mar 07, 2007 6:18:54 pm PST #5811 of 10001

You didn't use our last names, did you? So Dogs In Elk will continue to rule.


Allyson - Mar 07, 2007 6:20:18 pm PST #5812 of 10001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica

Damn. You're right.


sumi - Mar 07, 2007 6:24:21 pm PST #5813 of 10001
Art Crawl!!!

Allyson -- wonderful blurb, description, whatever!

Kathy -- wow. That's excellent!


P.M. Marc - Mar 07, 2007 6:36:18 pm PST #5814 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Allyson, that's so awesome. Whee!


tommyrot - Mar 07, 2007 6:53:48 pm PST #5815 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

For those with kidlets: Books for Young Mathgeeks: Rabbits, Rabbits, Everywhere

As promised, another review of a childrens math book. Tonight, my daughter and I read "Rabbits, Rabbits, Everywhere: a Fibonacci Tale" by Ann McCallum.

This time, I have absolutely no complaints. "Rabbits" is a beautifully told story, with delightful artwork, which makes the basic idea of the Fibonacci series understandable to a first grader. It's a wonderful book, which I recommend absolutely without reservation. If you have a child around 1st grade age, buy this book.

The book tells the story of the town of Chee, where the Pied Piper settled after he got the rats out of Hamelin. The town of Chee is protected by a Wizard, and in exchange for his protection, the townspeople bring him food. Until one day, the Pied Piper gets greedy, and decided to convince the people not to give food to the wizard anymore - instead, he wants to keep it for himself.

The next day, 1 pair of rabbits show up in the villages fields - named Knot and Fib. The next day, they have a pair of babies. The day after that, they have another pair of babies - and the first pair of babies are adults. The next day there are 5 pairs of rabbits; the next 8; the next 13; and so on, until there are so many rabbits that they're eating all of the towns vegetables.

The piper tries to pipe the rabbits away, but fails. While he's doing that, one little girl figures out the pattern of how many rabbits there are - by drawing it out in a triangle in the dirt. (At this point, my daughter figured out the pattern herself, looking at the picture!).

The girl goes to the Wizard to ask him to help the town before they starve, and shows him that she's figured out the pattern. He replies that by understanding the pattern, she can solve the problem - recognizing patterns gives you a way to figure out to solve them. And he gives her a flute which she can use to lead the rabbits away from the town.

And the story gets told all around as "The Tale of Fib and Knot in Chee".

This is the kind of book I was hoping for. It's a well-told story, which is engaging as a story; but it also teaches an interesting math lesson in a way that doesn't hide the fact that it's doing math, but makes the math a fun part of the story. Watching my daughter figure out the Fibonacci series herself from the patterns in the pictures was amazing - and then the way that the story moves on to talk about how understanding patterns helps solve problems was great - and it wasn't lost on my daughter: she immediately said that just like the girl in the story, when she figured out a pattern, she could use it to solve things.

That is so cool....


§ ita § - Mar 07, 2007 9:02:26 pm PST #5816 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

a) Congratulations, Kathy!
b) Congratulations to you too, Allyson!

Rockage.

I am in a grumpy and whiny mood mostly. It was briefly alleviated by watching Taye Diggs at my gym playing basketball (not that tall, ALL that hot). But mostly I'm pouty again, and wondering how many mandarins I can eat before going to sleep.


Fred Pete - Mar 08, 2007 3:46:50 am PST #5817 of 10001
Ann, that's a ferret.

Yay, Kathy!

Congrats on the review, Allyson!