Archive for the ‘Doug’s Original Work’ Category

26 Quotes for the New Year Today – New Content Tomorrow

Saturday, January 1st, 2022

Doug on Banjo
Dr. Doug played banjo at the Chenango Froka Central Schools Christmas Concert.

Free Resources for Busy Parents and Educators Who Don’t Have as Much Time to Read and Surf as I Do

If you are here today thank you so much. Rather than give you new content I think it”s best to read some of the inspirational quotes that I post almost every day. Below are the most recent posts. If you want to see a very long list, go to my archieves. Consieder putting some on your classroom wall. You can also check out my archives for Social/Mobile Media & Artificial Intelligence Education, Leadership/Parenting, Learning Resources, and Humor / Music / Cool Stuff.

11/30 Leadership@WSroufe

11/28 Every Exit@RonAndSandyLee

11/27 Jung@drugb0t

11/26 Every Exit@RonAndSandyLee

11/25 Kierkegaard@tim_fargo

11/24 Love@themerry_monk

11/23

Your Own Thoughts

@TrainingMindful

11/22 Norms@Gapingvoid

11/20 Be Happy@ITArchitechs

11/19 THick Skin@Melanie_Collins

11/17

True Friends

@LifeWithJohn

11/16

Unique Child

@JillDuBois22

11/15 Laziness quote@eileen_lennon Moderator of #NYCSchoolsTechChat

111/13 Life is short@BabyGo2014

11/12 Simmons@BillMoore20

11/11 World as Canvas@SimpliTeach

11/10 Dreams@JeanetteJoy

11/9 Kind Words@theeiguy

11/8 True Friends@jeffsheehan

11/6 Gapngvoid Wealth@Gapingvoid

11/5 Your Love@lawrence_wray

11/4 Life is a book@gary_hensel

11/3 Observe and Learn@TrainingMindful

11/1 Feedback@Leadershipfreak

10/31 Entreprenual Mindset@Gapingvoid

10/29 Larry Cuban’s latest cartoon collection – You might not find all of them funny but my friend Larry does his best. @LarryCUban

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16 Jobs That Will Disappear In The Next 20 Years Due To Artificial Intelligence from Alux.Com

Sunday, September 16th, 2018

Drivers
16 Jobs That Will Disappear In The Next 20 Years Due To Artificial Intelligence from Alux.Com (@aluxcom) should provide guidance to students and people already in the workforce. If you have one of these jobs, start preparing for something else. If you are still in school, prepare for something else. Watch the original Alux.Com video on YouTube. For each job, I have added my own thoughts and advice based on my daily viewing of Internet resources for this blog.

One study at Oxford found that 45% of all jobs will disappear in the next ten years.

  • For the most part, it’s easy to extrapolate from where we are to where we are going as many of these job loss trends are well underway or available as prototypes. As time marches forward, machines and computer software will be able to do more and more and this isn’t new. Not only will jobs in the US disappear, but many of the jobs that have been sent offshore will return only to be done by machines and/or computers.

Manufacturing Workers

16 Jobs Not to Train for and to Start Retraining If You Are In One

  • 1. Drivers – It looks like it won’t be long before cars and trucks drive themselves. Our 20 million drivers will have to reinvent themselves. There are already self-driving trucks in Nevada and self-driving Uber cars in Pittsburg. This should be a real boon for old people and it should save many lives. Perhaps when I get to the point where my daughter tries to take my car keys away I’ll have a self-driving car.
  • 2. Farmers – Much of what needs to be done is rapidly being automated. Labor intensive jobs are already disappearing. This should reduce our reliance on immigrant labor. Already under 2% of employed people in the US work on farms. Farming also continues to become more hi-tech. On some dairy farms, for example, cows are already milking themselves. If you want to be a farmer, take as many science and engineering courses as you can. You can also expect to work for one of the ten companies that control almost all of the food we eat.
  • 3. Printers and Publishers – This one is well on its way with the growth of Internet publishing. Few publishers have been able to establish a successful paywall in front of their online content. These jobs won’t totally disappear for a while as older people like me still like the experience of holding real books, magazines, and newspapers. There is no laptop screen as big as my physical New York Times.
  • 4. Cashiers – Self-checkout stations are expanding already. At my Walmart, as of today, there are eight along with an equal number of checkouts staff by humans. I prefer self-checkout at grocery stores and places like Walmart as there is usually no waiting. I suspect that as soon as lines show up they will add more and have fewer humans. I’ve used them in restaurants as well and I like this experience. I don’t have to give my credit card to some server I don’t know who takes it someplace where I can’t see it. In the last year, my card was hacked twice in restaurants in New York City for this reason. Fast food restaurants now let you order and pay using your smartphone from the parking lot.
  • 5. Travel Agents – I’ve been doing my own booking online for years. The last time I used a real agent was in 2002. Many of my retired friends sign up for tours where someone does all the planning and makes all the arrangements for at least a bus full or people. I prefer doing it myself as when you go on a tour bus or cruise ship you take the crowd with you.
  • 6. Manufacturing Workers – Now machines build other machines with less human interaction every year. This is not new as car manufacturers have been using robots for decades. This is a slow and steady change unlike some of the others listed here. Many schools are letting students manufacture things with 3D printers. This is one more reason why all students should try to take a few programming courses.
  • 7. Dispatchers – The role of the dispatcher is coordinate people in the field. Technology will soon do this better. You can already call your own cabs and pay with your smartphone. I think we will need people who can maintain and repair vehicles for some time. These jobs have already become more technical as the first thing they do is connect a computer to the vehicle’s computer.
  • Waiting Tables

  • 8. Waiters and Bartenders – This trend has already begun. I’ve been to restaurants where once you are seated you use a tablet at the table to order and pay. We still need humans to do some of the food preparation, but there is no reason why a robot can’t serve the food someday soon.
  • 9. Bank Tellers – ATMs have already cut the number of people doing this job. There are still many transactions that we need tellers for, but efficiency is making them more productive. At my bank, the tellers use a machine to count the money I get when I cash a check.
  • 10. Military Pilots and Soldiers – The military is often the first to adopt new technology. Drones are more accurate and safer, at least for the person piloting the craft. We only have prototypes of robot soldiers at this point, but the idea of a robot soldier engaging bad guys in urban warfare has a lot of appeal. Check out this prototype soldier from Boston Dynamics. We also have robots that help clear IEDs and landmines. As terrorists adapt and evolve, we will need to do the same with increasingly advance technology.
  • 11. Fast Food Workers – This falls in the same category with the waiters and bartenders. According to some thinking, the push for $15/hour pay has pushed automation to be adopted faster. Order taking and paying is easy to automate. The harder part of food preparation will take a bit longer, but it is already underway. The remaining humans will need to be more skilled to troubleshoot the entire process.
  • 12. Telemarketer – This industry has been taken over by online ads. People like me that only have cell phones can block calls, which takes a big piece of the market off the table. Facebook, for example, can test the effectiveness of ads and target them to people who are more likely to respond. I don’t mind seeing this job go as it seems like a crappy job.
  • 13. Accountants and Tax Preparers – Boring and repetitive jobs are ripe for takeover by machines. Most people have simple needs for tax preparation that can easily be met by software. Tax preparation software is already decades old. If you are an accountant or plan to be one, you better be good and expect to only get the tricky nonroutine work. Rich people and large corporations will still need tax preparation people, but they better be really top notch.
  • Stock Traders

  • 14. Stock Traders – Only 10% of stocks traded today are traded by humans. In this world, the bots always win. Most people will still want to talk to a financial advisor who needs to be very knowledgeable and constantly learning. The habits of constant learning and continuous improvement should serve workers well as they try to deal with the ever-changing nature of the job market.
  • 15. Construction Workers – Technology is getting more efficient and fewer specialized workers will be needed at the job site. For example, watch Sam the Bricklaying Robot that can lay bricks better and three times as fast as the fastest human. Sam’s human supervisors will have to understand the entire job and not just be able to lay bricks. This trend probably started with the invention of the wheel or something like that. Automation has also dramatically cut the number of people needed to run mines and oil fields.
  • 16. Movie Stars – Human actors are expensive and moody. Actors will just be generated by computers. The 3D animated movies like Toy Story and others already give us an idea of how movies can be made without actors. Next time you see one of these animated movies be sure to stay for the credits and read about the hundreds of jobs that take the place of a relatively small number of actors. The problem here is when the movie is done, all of those people have to look for their next job. There are a lot of jobs for non-starving artists who are willing to do what the boss wants as opposed to their own thing so don’t hesitate to develop some artistic skill.

Dr. Doug’s General Advice On Preparing For the Future

  • We know that it is very difficult to know what kind of job you are going to be doing even a few years in the future. In the meantime, there are a few things that are clear as far as what you can do to prepare for whatever comes next no matter how old you are.
  • 1) Whatever you do, get good at it. There will be less and less work for people who are mediocre.
  • 2) Become a self-directed learner so you can acquire as much in the way of skill and knowledge as possible on your own. This can start as early as elementary school for some students. Tricky jobs require fast learners who can figure things out as they go. There are tools on the Internet that make learning much more available.
  • 3) Work hard and learn something new and try to improve every day. The future is not likely to belong to the slackers, at least for a while. If we get to the point where machines are doing everything we have to get good at slacking.
  • 4) Consider taking as many science, engineering, and programming courses as possible. In a future featuring more and more robots, you want to be designing, maintaining, or supervising them rather than being replaced by them. Even if you don’t want to get serious about programming, at least learn how to create and maintain an attractive website.
  • 5) Creative people will always be in demand. Some might argue that creativity cannot be taught, but most educators believe that it can be facilitated. If you don’t give students open-ended problems and projects, they won’t be able to exercise their creative ability. Parents can do this too.
  • 6) Artistic skills will be in demand. Everything you see on television, print media, and the Internet was created in part by artists. If you want to go to an art school, make sure it’s one where you will spend most of your time developing your artistic ability rather than taking a bunch of liberal arts courses. Try to take the AP versions in high school so you can avoid them in college. Also, pick a school in a big city where it will be easier to get high quality internships.
  • 7) Develop your network. Most people get their jobs by way of word of mouth. In addition to working hard to become highly skilled and creative, make sure that as many people as possible in addition to family and friends know what you can do. Rather than a resumé, put samples of your best work, whatever it is, on your website.

Some TED Talks on the Topic

  • Jobs of the Future and How We Can Prepare For Them, a TED Talk by Avinash Meetoo. @AvinashMeetoo As robots proliferate, the creative arts will thrive because people will have time on their hands and will be able to create things that entertain. In addition to the creative arts, there will be a high demand for jobs that call for computer science.
  • AI and the Future of Work a TED Talk by Volker Hirsch @vhirsch FoxCon in China is replacing 60,000 workers with robots. This means it’s cheaper to use robots than it is to pay someone $5 a day. Keep in mind that we have had industrial robots for decades. Drones are already delivering pizzas in New Zealand. Large legal firms are using AI to do legal work. Automation will take every job that it can take. Anything that has repetition machines can probably do better. If you are an account or radiologist you should consider retraining. Hoping that change won’t happen is a bad idea.
  • How the Future of Work is Not Jobs a TED Talk by Rudy Karsan @RudyKarsan tells us that people are already creating work and that entrepreneurism will increase in the future. He also makes a pitch for universal minimum income.
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An Emergency Remote Teaching Survey by Dr. Doug Green

Monday, March 30th, 2020

ERT

Emergency Remote Learning

  • Due to recent COVID-19 school closings, most teachers are engaged in a massive natural experiment involving online education. It seems that it’s time to put together a survey aimed to find out what teachers are experiencing as they try to carry on instruction online, perhaps for the first time. It would be a real waste if we didn’t try to gather some data from what is going on. We need to find out what works and what doesn’t, what we should continue doing as part of a blended learning effort, and what we need to do so that future remote learning efforts are successful whenever schools are closed for any reason. There is no reason why the next “snow day” should be wasted.

Each District is Different

  • There are thousands of school districts in the US and each district is on their own when it comes to finding out what their teachers, students, and parents are experiencing. The purpose of this effort is to suggest some questions that superintendents might ask in order to see what they can learn from what is going on. If you can think of any other questions that could yield valuable feedback please let me know at dgreen@stny.rr.com. Also, feel free to modify, add, or delete any questions. If you do send out a survey of some kind be sure to commit resources to analyze the information you harvest and use your data to make a plan to improve. Good luck. I want to thank the people at The Educause Review for their help with this effort.

My Questions

  • 1. Which of the sites recommended by the district did you use and how successful were they?
  • 2. Which sites have you used that were not suggested by the district?
  • 3. We need feedback from learners. What have your students told you?
  • 4. What did you struggle with most? Do you have any suggestions for how to prevent such struggles?
  • 5. Did you have sufficient support? If not, what was missing?
  • 6. Were there technology resources that you needed that weren’t available? If so, what were they?
  • 7. Are there non-technology resources that you could use that you don’t have?
  • 8. Please summarize any interactions that you may have had with parents since you started teaching remotely.
  • 9. Are there any other comments that you would like to offer.
  • Hodges, Charles; Moore, Stephanie; Lockee, Barb; Trust, Torrey; and Bond, Aaron. The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning, Educause Review, March 27, 2020, available online.
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Everything is Illuminated, The story of Big History by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Tuesday, September 16th, 2014

Everything is Illuminated the story of big history by Andrew Ross Sorkin (New York Times Magazine, Sept. 7, 2014) tells the story of how Bill Gates got the idea of bringing a course created by David Christian called Big History to schools in place of existing history courses. While this sounds very cool it is not without controversy. To get an idea of what this is all about, you can watch Christian’s TED Talk, The History of Our World in 18 Minutes.

In the Beginning

  • Big History is unusual in that it does not confine itself to any particular topic, or even a single discipline. It is a synthesis of history, biology, chemistry, astronomy, and other disparate fields that deal with life on Earth. The course is divided into eight thresholds. They are for example: the bing bang, the origin of Homo sapiens, the appearance of agriculture, and forces that shape our modern world. This course is available on DVD as part of the Teaching Company’s Great Courses. After viewing the course, Bill Gates approached Christian telling him that he wanted to introduce this course in high schools all across America. (It is also available online for free. Teachers have to register first and then give course codes to students.)

The Project Launch

  • In 2011, the Big History Project debuted in five high schools. As of this fall (2014) 1,200 schools and 15,000 students are involved. In many places like New York it runs into problems with regulations that require students to take certain specific history course, but states like California allow it to be taken in place of more traditional courses. Christian was teaching history at Macquarie University in Sydney when he started his own form of cross-disciplinary scholarship. The big idea is that everything is connected. As he started to look at the bigger picture of life on Earth, he realized that he needed to go to the starting point, or the beginning of the universe itself.
  • When he started testing his ideas he was delighted by the reaction of the students, and the notion that the course allowed him to address big questions like How did we get here? and Where are we going? that were not possible to ask in a course confined to a silo of content. It also allowed for insights across subjects and wildly ambitions narratives. This is just the opposite of what most students experience in school, which is “one damn course after another” with no connections between the courses.
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Exams Measure What We know, But They’re Also the Best Way to Learn – Article Summary

Monday, September 22nd, 2014

Exams Measure What We know, But They’re Also the Best Way to Learn by Benedict Carey takes a look at how pretests that resemble final exams can improve learning. This is from the New York Times Magazine, September 7, 2014. Click here for the full article. Click below to buy his book.

Benedict J. Carey

  • Benedict is a science reporter for The New York Times who focuses on brain and behavior topics. He writes about neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology, as well as everyday psychology. The territory includes the large and the small, memory molecules and group behavior, narcissism and nostalgia, drug uses and drug addiction. You can email him or reach him on Twitter @bencareynyt.

The Set Up

  • Benedict starts by asking if you would study more effectively if on day one of a difficult course you were presented with the final exam without answers. Certainly you would focus on the key questions and work hard to find high quality answers. This is the idea behind pretesting, one of the most exciting developments in learning-science. A recent study at U.C.L.A. by Elizabeth Ligon Bjork found that pretesting raised performance on finals by an average of 10%. The key idea here is that testing might be the key to studying rather than the other way around. A test is not only a measurement tool, it’s a way of enriching and altering memory.

Test Dread

  • Many of us have had the “bombed test” experience, and most of us have only taken tests that counted at the end of a unit, a semester, or a year. The problem is often due to a misjudgment of the depth of what we know. We simply think we are fluent when we are not, and we assume that further study won’t help. We move on forgetting that we forgot. The best way to overcome this illusion is testing, which also happens to be an effective study technique in its own right. This has been understood for some time as we know it is easier to memorize something if you stop and try to recite it after some initial study rather than studying until you have memorized the entire piece. Recitation is a form of self-examination.
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How to Cheat on State Standardized Tests and Not Get Caught by Dr. Doug Green

Monday, June 1st, 2015


Yesterday this article was posted at Education Week Online. My goal in writing it is to do my small part to take down a test and punish system that just about any educator I know thinks is bad for kids, and by extension our society as a whole. I encourage my readers to look for opportunities to do the same. I hope you enjoy it and please leave a comment if you can. My thanks go out to my editor Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) for believing in my work and doing such a fine editing job.

How to Cheat on State Standardized Tests and Not Get Caught by Dr. Doug Green

Also, be Sure to Check Out My Recent Book Summaries and Guest Posts.

Ball or Bands: Football vs Music as an Educational and Community Investment by John Gerdy (©2014) uses research to support the notion that due to costs, injuries, its focus on elite male athletes, and a negative impact on school cultures, support for high school football can no longer be defended. He also makes a case for why music and the arts in general need more support.

On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting by Thomas R. Guskey explains to all teachers why their grading practices are probably wrong for many reasons.

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count by Richard Nisbett shows how intelligence is mostly determined by one’s environment and provides concrete things that parents and teachers can do to make kids smarter.

Why Would Anyone Let Their Kid Play Football or Anything Else? This is my latest article posted at Ed Week Teacher’s online site yesterday. Thanks to Starr Sackstein for the great edits. @DrDougGreen @mssackstein @EdWeekTeacher

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Parents/Educators: Please Don’t Leave Twitter

Monday, November 21st, 2022
Twitter 2

It’s clear to me that Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has caused many people to leave the platform. While a lot of what happens on Twitter is useless, frivolous, and even harmful, there is a lot of good information being shared by people with similar interests. I’ve been on Twitter since 2009, when I started my blog DrDougGreen.com. I quickly connected with other like-minded educators who were using it to share free resources or advertise education products and services.

It was obvious to me from the start that educators using Twitter were a very small slice of the Twitterverse. If you look at who has the most followers, for example, you will find that they are all politicians, celebrities, athletes, or big organizations like NASA and Youtube. They have millions of followers, and none are considered to be primarily educators.

The top tier on Twitter uses it to promote themselves, their opinions, their causes, and their products. Some also engage in criticizing others. This later behavior often generates stories in the print and online news media. This can result in a common belief that Twitter is a bit of a “cesspool” rather than a place where people can share beneficial ideas and information and engage in meaningful discourse.

I find this unfortunate as, for me, Twitter is a rich source of the kind of resources that I share on my blog. It is also a way that I can spread the word about the important educational ideas that Twitter helps me find. It’s the rare link that I post that isn’t associated with one or more Twitter accounts.

Twitter

As of this writing, I have 6233 followers. While I not in the millions, I am in the top one percentile when it comes to Twitter followers. Unfortunately for me and many others, Since Musk took over, I have sadly lost about 100 followers with a handful leaving every day. Say what you will about him, but he certainly is a lightning rod for media attention and as a result, people are leaving every day. Leaving is facilitated by the fact that when it comes to users, Twitter currently ranks 17th.

Right now, the fate of Twitter is uncertain. Since I find it so valuable, I hope that when the dust settles, Twitter is healthy and still allows people with common interests to share ideas, information, and opinions. This can only happen for education if parents and educators stay the course. I am asking, therefore, that you stick with Twitter and use it for this purpose. In the long run, it will certainly benefit our children and ourselves. Thanks for your consideration. If you have already left Twitter, please reconsider. It’s easy to return. If you never were on Twitter, give it a try. Also, be sure to follow me @DrDougGreen if you don’t already. THANK YOU!

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Smoothie Basics: Adding Nutrition and Taste to Your Diet Now That You Have More Time at Home by Dr. Doug Green

Friday, March 27th, 2020

Smoothie Pic
Smoothie Basics: Add Nutrition and Taste to Your Diet Now That You Have More Time at Home by Dr. Doug Green
With families staying home and preparing more food from scratch, consider making some breakfast smoothies. Kids should like these beverages and it’s easy to involve them in choosing the ingredients and pushing the button. Here is what you need to know.

Start With Your Goals

  • You want something that is highly nutritious and good tasting. There are two basic kinds of smoothies, fruity and savory. I only make the former as the savory ones end up tasting like cold vegetable soup and at worst can seem a bit medicinal.
  • If it’s going to be nutritious, all ingredients should qualify. Ideally, you have one or more from the berry group and at least one from the citrus group. For protein, I use no-fat plain Greek yogurt, but you should experiment with nuts. Walnuts and almonds are the best, but other nuts are fine and may even taste better. Cashews and pistachios work for me. You will also need some liquid as just using fruit and yogurt won’t spin too well and if it did you would have to eat it with a spoon. (Think humus)

Fruit Options

  • I would start with strawberries and blueberries as my berry component. Raspberries and blackberries are fine too as long as your blender can pummel the seeds. For citrus I like oranges. Yes, I know they are a pain to peel but think of it as occupational therapy. Grapefruit is good too as are lemons and limes. If you use lemons and/or limes you may have to compensate by adding something sweet. If you need to add sweetness, try honey or maple syrup as they have as least some marginal nutritive value. You can also use jams or preserves. One of my secret ingredients is lingonberry jam.
  • Just about any fruit works so go with what’s in season. Grapes are good as are apples (skins on no seeds), pears (skins on no seeds), peaches and apricots (skins on no pits), and kiwis (peeled).
  • Another go-to ingredient is pineapple. I buy fresh uncut pineapples and process them myself. See YouTube if you need help. Also, consider more exotic fruits such as mangos or papayas. Don’t forget bananas. They always work well in smoothies and you don’t have to worry if they are a little too ripe. If you like them a little green they will add that taste to the finished product. Be sure to cut all fruit up to the size of a medium strawberry prior to adding it to your blender.

It’s Easy Being Green

  • Just about all nutritionists recommend that leafy vegetables be a steady part of your diet. If you feel you need more than you are getting from your other meals, you can add some to your smoothie. If you add a small amount of greens to a fruit smoothie they will not change the taste much if at all. They will, however, impact the color of the final product depending on how much you use and what you mix them with.
  • The king of smoothy greens is the trendy kale leaf, something that restaurants use to put on plates as an attractive garnish that no one ever ate. Other greens work too so if you have some kicking around for other reasons give them a try. Spinach looks like the second most popular green. One caution, adding greens to fruit-based smoothies can result in a final color that may or may not have great visual appeal. Think brown. It also might produce a drink that is bright green, a can’t miss item for St. Patrick’s day parties.
  • If you search for smoothie recipes online you will find ingredients that go beyond fruit, juice, yogurt, and greens. Avocados are common as are items that will add some heat. Examples include cayenne pepper and jalapeño peppers. I’ve also seen rolled oats, but most things in your pantry are fair game.

Liquid Possibilities

  • You need to add liquid to your smoothies to give them a drinkable consistency, just about any fruit juice will do. My list would include orange, cranberry, grapefruit, pineapple, and lemonade (already sweetened). There are many products on the market today that call themselves “Milk” but clearly do not come from a cow. Many are made from nuts like almonds and cashews. You don’t really milk a nut. You just boil them for a while and put them in a blender. Commercial outfits add other ingredients so check the labels to see what you are getting in terms of nutrition. Nutritionally, they are not a substitute for cow’s milk. You can also get coconut milk, which is easier to understand as it’s simply the liquid inside a coconut.

Slushies

  • If you want a frozen drink you can add ice, but that might make the drink seem watery. Try freezing small fruits like grapes, blueberries, and small strawberries. Other fruits can be added frozen as well as long you cut them into smaller pieces (grape size) before freezing. You will need a heavy-duty blender for making slushy smoothies. The amount of frozen fruit you need will require some trial and error to get a drink that matches your preferences.

Nutrition Label

Nutrition Data for Any Item

  • There is no dearth of controversy about what you should be eating for optimum health. Plant-based diets are becoming more popular and I have yet to see any smoothie recipes with meat in them. If you use yogurt, however, your smoothie won’t quality as vegan food since yogurt is made from cow’s milk. My goto site for checking the nutritional content of any food is NutritionData.self.Com. You can have it analyze a meal or any single ingredient. If you are looking to add or avoid something in your diet this site will help.

Your Blender

Your Blender

  • If you have an inexpensive blender you can still make smoothies. Just don’t expect it to do as good a job as a more expensive model. It will probably have a problem if you try to put in ice cubes or frozen fruit. When my wife was diagnosed with ALS in 2006, I bought a Blendtec blender as it was powerful enough to blend any food and turn ice cubes into snow. They have competition in the high-end blender market, but I have been extremely satisfied with mine. I had a warranty issue and they made good on it with no problems. If you want a powerful blender they start around $300.
  • There are a number of funny videos on YouTube where Blendtec demonstrates the power of their blender by blending none food items. Here is one where it blends an iPhone. In addition to the smoothie button, it also has buttons for ice cream, frozen yogurt, milkshakes, soups, syrups, fondues, sauces and dips, dressings, batters, and whole juice. I feel like it is smarter than I am, which is a good thing. (I am not being compensated by Blendtec for this post.)

One Sample Recipe

  • As you gain experience you will know how much stuff to add to the blender and how much liquid to add. Blenders have volume marks on the side. If you want a 12 oz. drink, fill it to the 12 oz. mark. (duh) If you make too much you can keep the leftovers to start tomorrow’s batch. If I were to make one now based on what I have, here is what I would throw-in.
  • One serving of yogurt, about half a cup. (I seldom measure anything.)
    Three medium-size strawberries stem included – Think of it as a green leafy vegetable. A decent blender can make them disappear.
    Two hand fulls of blueberries (the ratio of blueberries can impact the color of the finished product. The more you use the less appealing the color might be.)
    One tablespoon of crushed flax seeds (for your omega-3 fatty acids)
    One half of a medium-sized orange. I put the other half in my strawberry box for the next day.
    Enough juice of the day to just cover the above ingredients. (Cranberry? Be sure to get real juice and not some product that contains high fructose corn syrup.)

  • Your blender should have a smoothie setting so put on the lid, hold on to it, consider using ear protection (I do), and let er rip. Smart blenders know when to turn off. From here on it’s trial and error. I have made some I like better than others, but I haven’t made one yet I didn’t drink. Let me know how it goes and be creative.
  • Greger, Michael, and Stone, Gene, 2015. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease, Flatiron Books: New York, NY.
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The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio by Daniel Berger

Monday, September 29th, 2014

The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio by Daniel Berger portrays the battle between the person who runs the most successful charter school association in New York City and its Mayor. I’m left wondering why the public schools aren’t looking to build on the success of this group of charters that is having amazing success, at least in terms of the standardize tests. Your school might want to see what they are doing.

Daniel Bergner

  • Daniel is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and the author of four books of nonfiction: What Do Women Want?, The Other Side of Desire, In the Land of Magic Soldiers, and God of the Rodeo.  In the Land of Magic Soldiers received an Overseas Press Club Award for international reporting and a Lettre-Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage and was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. God of the Rodeo was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Daniel’s writing has appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harper’s, Mother Jones, Talk, and the New York Times Book Review, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. His writing is included in The Norton Reader. You can email him at bergnerdaniel@gmail.com and reach him on Twitter at @bergnerdaniel.

Eva Moskowitz

  • With a degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in history from Johns Hopkins, Eva founded her first Success Academy in 2006 for kindergarteners and first graders in the Harlem section of New York City. Since then it has grown to the largest charter group in the city with nearly 9,500 students in 24 elementary schools, seven middle schools, and a new high school that opened in August. Most students are black and Latino and poor enough to qualify for subsidized meals. These are the same type of children that the city’s public school have had little success educating.
  • The 2014 results from New York State Tests on English and math place her schools in the top 1% of all the state’s schools in math, and in the top 3% in English. At one school, where 95% of students are black or Latino, 98% scored at or above grade level in math, with 80% receiving the highest of four ratings. You would think the mayor would be thrilled with this performance, but he has chosen to engage Moskowitz in a ferocious political battle. While they are both liberal crusaders, they have profoundly divergent ideas about how the mission should be carried out. De Blasio has moved to block the expansion of the Success Academies, but Moskowitz is using her own political resources to move him out of the way. The outcome of this clash may determine education’s future.
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Why Getting Vaccinated is the SMART CHOICE by Dr. Doug Green – Updated 9/15/2021

Tuesday, September 14th, 2021
Vaccine

Why I got Vaccinated and You Should Too by Dr. Doug Green

  • I published this prior to President Biden’s recent action on COVID where he said that all federal employees and anyone who works for an organization with more than 100 employees need to be vaccinated or tested weekly. As a result, I did an update. Please share with anyone you know who isn’t vaccinated. It may say a life.
  • Everyone I know personally has been vaccinated, it’s clear that there are a lot of people in the US who have so far chosen not to. The purpose of this article is to explain why choosing the vaccine puts the odds way in your favor when it comes to avoiding serious illness and death. Good luck.
  • 1. If you don’t trust the government, don’t worry. The government did not make the vaccine! The government is not forcing anyone to get vaccinated! The vaccines were created by the private sector with strong encouragement from the Trump administration. The entire Trump and Biden families have been vaccinated. Recently, however, President Biden took action that will require federal employees and anyone working for an organization with more than 100 employees to get vaccinated to show a negative test weekly. If you are determined not to be vaccinated you face the inconvenience and possibly the cost of weekly testing. You also run the risk of a false positive or a real positive followed by a week or two of quarantine for which you might not get paid. Failure to comply could cost you your job.
  • 2. 99+% of people in hospitals with COVID are NOT vaccinated. (2) That alone should be the only reason you need to get vaccinated unless you really like hanging out in hospitals and the possibility of being placed on a ventilator or dying.
  • 3. Vaccines have eliminated some diseases altogether like smallpox and polio. Almost all of us had a number of vaccines when we were young for a variety of diseases. Within the last decade, I also had vaccines for pneumonia and shingles. Many people actually die from pneumonia when their lungs fill with fluids caused by some other disease. Are you afraid of needles? It’s time to suck it up. There is little or no real pain and the process lasts a few seconds. Will the injection site be a little sore the next day? Probably, but on a scale from one to ten it’s more like a one.
  • 4. Muslim terrorists are noted anti-vaxers. They have been known to murder medical personnel trying to bring vaccines for things like measles to people in rural communities. When it comes to vaccines do you really want to be on their side of the argument?
  • vaccine 2

  • 5. Are you shunning the vaccine because you think it’s the conservative thing to do? Note that every news anchor on the conservative Fox News Network has been vaccinated and encourages you to do the same. They are also quick to point out that the matter is your choice.
  • 6. People with low levels of education are far less likely to be vaccinated. Poor people are far less likely to be vaccinated. Are these groups you identify with? With an earned doctorate and a generous pension, I am well educated and not poor. I got vaccinated. Even if you are poor and didn’t finish high school you can benefit from the decisions that well-educated wealthy people have made for the most part.
  • 7. Vaccinated people who do get covid get a mild form. This happened to my daughter and her husband. Now they have natural immunity to go along with the vaccine.
  • 8. While there are no long-term studies, there are millions of people who have been vaccinated for over ten months as of this writing. So far there is nothing to indicate that there is any long-term downside for vaccinated people. (9/14/2021)
  • If you are a gambling person, all the information we have suggests that getting vaccinated is the way to go if you want the odds in your favor. Don’t forget that millions have died worldwide and many others suffer from the effects of what is called ‘long COVID,’ (1) It’s your choice, but it’s hard to argue that getting vaccinated isn’t the Smart Choice.

(1) Davis, Kayla. ‘Long COVID’ affects 1 in 10 kids, Israel survey finds, New York Post, 9/16/2021, @nypost @JournoRivas

(2) Fonrouge, Gabrielle T. The new 99%: These are the people who are getting serious cases of COVID-19, New York Post, 9/9/2021, @FonrougeGab @nypost

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