On connective KO-theory of elementary abelian 2-groups

A general notion of detection is introduced and used in the study of the cohomology of elementary abelian 2-groups with respect to the spectra in the Postnikov tower of orthogonal K-theory. This recovers and extends results of Bruner and Greenlees and is related to calculations of the (co)homology of the spaces of the associated Omega-spectra by Stong and by Cowen Morton

Applying G\"odel's Dialectica Interpretation to Obtain a Constructive Proof of Higman's Lemma

We use G\"odel's Dialectica interpretation to analyse Nash-Williams' elegant but non-constructive "minimal bad sequence" proof of Higman's Lemma. The result is a concise constructive proof of the lemma (for arbitrary decidable well-quasi-orders) in which Nash-Williams' combinatorial idea is clearly present, along with an explicit program for finding an embedded pair in sequences of words.Comment: In Proceedings CL&C 2012, arXiv:1210.289

Politics are Crushing the Standards

The recent news that Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill to, in the parlance of the times, repeal and replace the common-core standards in her state was surprising, to say the least, notwithstanding a legal challenge to the repeal filed in the Oklahoma Supreme Court by parents, teachers, and state board of education members on June 25. Before Gov. Fallin was against the standards, she supported them. [excerpt

Adam Smith

Smith proposes an account of how languages developed. He did so not as historian, but as a philosopher with a special concern about how a nominalist could account for general terms. Names for individuals are taken as fairly unproblematic – say ‘Thames’ and ‘Avon’ for each of the respective rivers. But whence the word ‘river,’ applicable to more than one, if all that exist are particular objects? Smith’s view is not the usual one, according to which people deploy a powerful ability to abstract mentally, and subsequently affix a label to a general concept. He resisted this because he granted that such robust mental processes themselves presuppose the use of words. Rather, what holds the class together is the word itself, a “single appellation.

Maybe It\u27s Time to Put Betsy DeVos in \u27Receive Mode\u27

By now you have probably heard about Betsy DeVos\u27 big day out recently. She tried to visit a middle school in Washington but found the front door blocked when she showed up. This led, of course, to the publication of an already-infamous cartoon suggesting that DeVos is actually a modern-day Civil Rights warrior, and to the suggestion that protesters blocking DeVos at the schoolhouse door was the functional (if not moral) equivalent of preventing black children from attending segregated schools in the 1950s and \u2760s. It\u27s an argument that is morally wrong, historically stupid, and patently offensive. [excerpt

Looking for a Cure for Educationl Exhaustion

Whoa, folks! An entire month got away from me there. Ever had that happen to you? If you\u27re a teacher I\u27m guessing it probably has. I wish I could say that there was a good reason I hadn\u27t written anything at all on this blog in the past few weeks, but the sad truth is that I haven\u27t really been any busier than usual. Every semester becomes a slog at some point—that right there might be a topic for another post soon; maybe I could write two in a month!—but that hasn\u27t stopped me before. I had some extra responsibilities this year, but usually that just provides more material to write about. The truth is that I stopped writing because I was exhausted—not physically, but mentally. For a good part of the past month I had no real interest in thinking about schools or politics or education policy at all. (excerpt

Why Is Mulvaney Opposed to Feeding Poor Kids at School?

Folks, you\u27ve got to get a load of this guy Mick Mulvaney. Just looking at his name conjures images of a character from a gangster novel set during Prohibition, but he\u27s actually the Trump White House\u27s director of the Office of Management and Budget. That means he\u27s the hatchet man—the guy responsible for making sure everything Trump wants to cut gets cut. And it means he\u27s a real human, too. Allegedly. Case in point: Mulvaney has been producing amazing sound bites lately to explain the contents of Trump\u27s proposed federal budget. [excerpt