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"Calculus Does Not Have To Be Made Easy -- It Is Easy Already."

I have sometimes heard from colleagues and persons within the department that I should "go easy" on the intro level students because, "they just cannot handle some of the material, especially the math."

Thanks to "Stand and Deliver" I continue to ignore that advice to this day.

Economics does not have to be made easy -- it is easy already. I like the sound of that.

Not long now until I make my annual trip to the Psychonomics conference. This year it's in Long Beach. I've never been to California. This should be interesting.

Our lab is grinding hard on running participants. We have nearly thirty (30) timeslots signed up this week to get to our target sample size (n = 20). With the overkill, and the fact that we really only need ten more participants, I think we'll make it. Of course, the overkill is because we need to grab a few extras for a control study that is missing four good participants, and also to account for participants not showing up. Like today. Where my two morning timeslots did not get filled.

Up next, after all the data has been collected, we will analyze it and create a poster to display our findings. Then we'll print it off and hop on a plane to Long Beach, show the findings for a few hours in a hotel conference room, then collapse in exhaustion.

Did I mention that on top of all of this, I have to run a psychometrics project (specifically, I need to collect data to use in an Exploratory Factor Analysis), give a third exam to my class, assemble a prelim committee, and stay afloat in the literature so I can sound halfway intelligent to the throngs at psychonomics?

Yup. Just another typical November as a grad student.

I find William Easterly's blog to be a fantastic source of discussion on aid organizations.

I also find it disturbing that whenever I meet some one who buys "fair trade" or "RED", and I ask them to define "fair trade" or how the money from their purchase actually gets to the intended target (development in African communities) they have only a vague notion (i.e. "Well they pay a wage the farmer deserves" -how is this determined and by whom?-, or "it goes directly to the Global Fund" -how does it get from the store, how are the profits and costs tallied, and who is in charge of the distribution?-).

So I would like to link this blog post for my friends who buy RED.

When economists and auditors can't view the flow of funds something is not right. If you want to feel charitable this holliday season, give to your local religious organization or actual charity who has to open up their books every now and then and prove that they're not misusing funds. I'm all for these "sustainable business" plans, but that does not mean that they can be trusted off hand because celebrities and Apple say its okay.

Obviously, if you trust the company, continue to buy and do so with my full encouragement; it is your choice and your money.

Update: RED responds rather openly, and Dadush expands on the need for transparency.

I taught my very own class for the first time ever today.

And I scared the crap out of them.

No, seriously. I was the death-bringing instructor from the bowels of Hell.

The best part is that I didn't even realize this, as they actually responded to questions when I asked them and a few even came up to me to talk to me once the class was done.

I started out by just standing in front of the room with my arms crossed and stared them down until every last one of them (all 130) were quiet. Yes, I silenced an entire room by just standing there and looking authoritative. It's an old psychologist trick. And it really, really worked. I even heard one of the students say to me, "WOW... how did you DO that?" I just smiled at him.

And then started to talk.

That's when they got scared.

My office mate was passing out syllabi for me, and she couldn't help but chuckle a little, because, according to her, "When you project your voice, you sound very, very angry."

And I did.

And they listened.

Oh, did they listen.

In the teaching textbook they gave us, they advise new instructors that it is easier to "lighten up" than it is to "tighten up" during the semester. So I decided to bring the hammer down now, then loosen up as the semester moved along. So I dropped the hammer. I drilled my exam policy into their heads with near violent force ("If you do not notify me within 24 hours of missing an exam, you will not be allowed to retake it and you WILL get a zero!) and even used a few visual aids (when I was telling them what would happen if I ever caught them cheating, I tore the syllabus I was holding in half, told them that would be the first thing they would hear, and they would then get a zero after being asked in a not-so-polite manner to leave the class - no exceptions).

The funny thing is that I actually feel a little bad for them. Could it be that now that I have the ability to actually destroy a room full of fragile young minds, I feel pitty? Compassion? A desire to use well the sacred trust I have been given as their instructor?

Nah. On Wednesday, I'm going to make them stand up and repeat things in unison. I think that will be fun. ;)

This post is for Joe. He likes to read blogs. So I figure I'd try to post something, though these photos came from his computer. Thanks for getting me up on one ski, Joe. You're an inspiration to us all, Papa K.

The other night my friend TMS Live came into to do a show in Arvada. His new project is called "John Boys Courage" and while he played music, I brought some of my newly framed photos to act like I know what I'm doing. I recently put my photos online at www.markposhak.com, so please check the site out if you so desire.

Here's a few photos of the night:

The Jr. High Inner-City Denver trip has been a huge success. We've learned a lot about poverty and homelessness. We've learned a lot about our city and its needs. We've learned a lot about ourselves and response to such issues. I've learned that Jr. High students can be quite mature, at times,nd be quite fun as well. We've been working with ministry called "Open Door Fellowship" which is an amazing ministry that owns nearly one city-block worth of houses for former prostitutes, drug addicts, single moms, the disabled, etc. It's been an honor to work with them.



Now it's off to London for 3 days with my senior guys. They're a bit spoiled getting to go to London as their Senior trip, but fortunately our lay-over for Uganda is in London so we just moved our flight a couple days earlier. Each student (5 of them) gets to pick the one thing they want to see/explore in the city, besides all the common sites. I'm excited to get there and have no pressure to do anything - just relax, see the city and get ready for Africa.

On the 31st of July we fly on to Entebbe, Uganda. We'll stay a night in Kampala and then head on to Lukaya for our mission project of building a shelter for orphans of the AIDS epidemic. We'll also be working in an orphanage for a couple days. And not to be too spoiled, we're taking a 2 day safari through the jungle. Being a Pastor to Students is hard sometimes...


I have lots to say about each of the trips so far, even about going home and seeing family like the twins and 99 year old grandma Doris (the lovely lady pictured above). I also have thoughts on my returning to Africa some 5 years after I was kicked out of the Ivory Coast. I'm not sure what to think of all that, but that event led me to this one, so trusting forward is all I've got.

Pray for us as we go, for 3 weeks in a foreign country is hard, no matter how many times you've done it. And to be in a place where we'll see things and experience things we've never seen before, never felt before, never eaten before, will be a trying but ultimately rewarding experience.

See you all at the end of August...

I just returned from New York city, which was an incredible experience of sights (the city atop a sky-rise building), sounds (live Jazz at Smalls), smells (the best crouissant you'll ever have) and laughs (live improv comedy with some SNL folk). It was one of the first vacations I've taken in a long time, if ever, on my own, off from work. It was hard coming back because I got delayed a day so I was a little rushed all week, but it was amazing.

I began to think about how fortunate I am to get to travel so much. Since December I have been to LA, Chicago and New York (not to mention Denver and St. Louis) which are basically the top 3 cities in our country. And this summer I get to skip the globe a little more. I love that my job allows me to travel, and that part of my job IS travel. Thoughts like these make this job worth it.

If you're interested in seeing a few photos from my New York trip, go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17168121@N00/sets/72157600099946481/show/

but here's a couple I like:









And here is two from Chicago at Christmas time:

...but questions linger on.

Bones rattle. Dried, calcified fingers scrape the stonework. Ulna and radius rattle, shifting weight from arm to arm. Tattered graveclothes rasp and tear as dust falls from the limbs. With great force, the corpse pushes itself up, craning its neck, lifting its head towards the light. Empty eye sockets scrape the air, hungry for the sun. The dessicated mandible drops open, the memory of lungs clawing for air.

And yet, a breath escapes the maw of the skull, kicking up dust into the darkness. Impossible. No lungs expell it. No vocal chords give it vibration. No lips part to let it pass. Yet the husk exhales, then draws breath back in to empty ribs.

It rises upon frail femur and trembling tibia. Rags cling to the husk. Scraping across a dusty floor, it shambles with force far beyond what it's frail frame ought to facilitate. Phalanges old and dry grip the stone that seals the tomb and push. The air shifts and hisses as freshness and light pierce the crypt.

Out across the graveyard and down through the field, the ghoul staggers steadily. Down the road and to the sea, across the pier and past the docks, its empty eyes trace the outline of an old ship, long broken apart for firewood. It climbs aboard the vessel's memory and staggers to the stern. There, its claws grip the wheel.

The hanging jaw hisses a command. The sails drop. The anchor lifts. A wind, unfelt, fills the sails. The wheel spins, and the ship obeys.

Empty eyes, lidless and invisible, lock upon the open sea. Bones long dead remember the salty breeze. The trappings of life long left behind, with all its cares and worries and lies and politics, the dead man's heart begins to warm.

One thought echoes in the empty skull.

I live again.

The memory of lips peel back into a smile as the spectral hull crashes against the waves.

Never before has the dead man felt so alive.

The graph above (many thanks to one of my Indonesian colleagues who made it look prettier) shows my current Junior/Senior level "Economic Development of Latin America" students' exam performance (x-axis), with their homework performance (y-axis).

Homework "is entirely voluntary, 10% extra credit, and designed as exam preparation." The homework is basically a voluntary curve. I refuse to arbitrarily curve their work.

I am aware that an excel graph is in no way a rigorous statistical analysis, and I cannot really draw any causality from this (correlation maybe) without some serious econometric mumbo-jumbo. But I do have two words for you:
Selection bias.

Enjoy the pretty colors and dots.