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19-Year-Old Math Prodigy Alia Sabur Is Today's Favorite Jezebel
On this morning's Today show, Ann Curry interviewed Alia Sabur, who, at 18, became the youngest professor in the history of the United States. Sabur, now 19, is refreshingly adorable and normal — certainly mature for her age, but completely humble about her achievements. She teaches physics and math at Southern University in New Orleans, a school so destroyed by Katrina that students are still attending classes in trailers. Sabur wanted to teach there because she wanted to help Katrina victims but knew she wasn't good at building houses. "I tried to do what I'm good at," Sabur explained. A voice over notes that Sabur "loves celebrity gossip websites," and pans to a shot of Alia looking at Jezebel. Full clip above.
clips
Mariah Carey [WalMart]
Mariah Carey On E=MC²: "I Failed Remedial Math"
Mariah Carey is going all out to promote her new album, and ever since we learned its title, E=MC², we've been dying to know what the hell it's supposed to signify. In the clip above, from an interview Mimi did for WalMart, she tries to explain herself, saying it was mainly a joke, since she's actually really bad at math.Mariah Carey [WalMart]
Reader Roundup
Best Comment of The Day, in response to British Paper Says Women Just Can't Do Math: "Math is a douche. He cheated on me with that whore Science." We say: And that perv Anthropology watched! • Worst, in response to Anna Wintour Is Silently Judging You: "I'm judging Anna, and she's just as fooking butt-ugly frightening making her sultry face as she is making her stern pissed off face." We say: Zzzzzzz. If you're going to be a Mean Girl, can you at least make your insults snappy?
Best Comment of The Day, in response to British Paper Says Women Just Can't Do Math: "Math is a douche. He cheated on me with that whore Science." We say: And that perv Anthropology watched! • Worst, in response to Anna Wintour Is Silently Judging You: "I'm judging Anna, and she's just as fooking butt-ugly frightening making her sultry face as she is making her stern pissed off face." We say: Zzzzzzz. If you're going to be a Mean Girl, can you at least make your insults snappy?
daily (hate) mail
British Paper Says Women Just Can't Do Math
A new survey by a numeracy campaign about basic math skills in British adults has been released, and it reports that one in three women have trouble adding sums mentally, while only 18% of men do. The results of the poll help to underscore the obnoxiousness of the London newspaper the Daily Mail: while the BBC report on the survey attributes the demographic gender split to women's lack of "confidence" in their own quantitative abilities, the Daily Mail takes the opportunity to imply that women are stupid and only need math skills for things like buying shoes. "34 per cent [of women]- said she had trouble adding up prices in her head while out shopping," the paper laments. More »
It All Adds Up
A new study published in the January/February 2008 issue of the journal Child Development states that girls have caught up with boys in terms of math courses — and their friends influence them. Girls look to their close friends when making important decisions, the study found, and girls with friends who make good grades took more high-level math than other teens. Ditching the Plastics to hang with the Mathletes, à la Mean Girls, is a scientifically wise choice! [EurekAlert]
A new study published in the January/February 2008 issue of the journal Child Development states that girls have caught up with boys in terms of math courses — and their friends influence them. Girls look to their close friends when making important decisions, the study found, and girls with friends who make good grades took more high-level math than other teens. Ditching the Plastics to hang with the Mathletes, à la Mean Girls, is a scientifically wise choice! [EurekAlert]
mathletes
Do We Suck At Math Because Of Biology Or The Patriarchy?
Ever since ex-Harvard President Lawrence Summers said that women are not succeeding in math and science careers because of innate biological differences, there have been numerous articles written, some supporting Summers and some trashing him. Though no one has come to a definitive conclusion, everyone agrees that there are too few females pursuing high level math and science careers. An article from the December issue of Scientific American attempts to summarize all the important sociological and statistical studies about women in science and finds that in the bell curve of mathematical ability, most women end up clustered around the middle, while men more often fall on the high and low ends of the ability spectrum, meaning there are more male math geniuses, and more male math morons, then there are women in either category. More »
Natalie Portman is a known smarty-pants. That whole Harvard education and blah blah blah. And now she's going all Winnie from The Wonder Years on us and is trying to teach kids that math is cool! She's guest-editing next week's Scholastic math magazine. Do kids in grade school even know who Natalie Portman is? Last time we heard, Garden State isn't on regular rotation in the 2nd grade video library. [Huffington Post]
