Tag: Art

The principles of macro-economics

With a national unemployment rate of 10%, most students are aware of the current recession. When they ask about what the government is doing about it, the answer is that they’re following the advice of a man who died over 60 years ago, John Maynard Keynes.

Keynes wrote the textbook on how to manage economies, particularly in response to recessions. If the economy is in a recession because people are not spending money, then his solution was for the government to spend the money instead. Friedrich Hayek, however, disagreed.

Hayek’s disagreement with Keynes is a disagreement about human nature. This is after all what economics is all about, how people behave. Hayek though that recessions are necessary for economies and societies adjust to changes. Economies go into recession because as things change, such as technology, some businesses will fail because their products are no longer necessary. Eventually new companies and industries will replace these, but as that transition occurs, there will be the general hardship of a recession.

So, if the government spends money to support the economy all it’s doing is preventing necessary change, which means that in the long run, the economy will be worse off than if the government just let the change occur. Necessary adjustments will have to occur sooner or later.

The thing which is most needed to secure healthy conditions is the most speedy and complete adaptation possible of the structure of production. – F. Hayek

Even today are ongoing arguments either way. The government, specifically the heads of the Federal Reserve and the department of the treasury, Ben Bernanke and Tim Gethner, is dealing with the current recession by following Keynes’ prescription. They are adding more money to the economy. Other economists disagree.

The video illustrates the differences between Hayek’s and Keynes’ view of the economy using a music video and a rap. It is a wonderful example of how serious issues (and you can see the sincerity of the creators) can be explained in a way that catches the attention. I like how the authors give the same message in two modes: the words explain the concepts and the video illustrate them (look out for Tim and Ben).

Rock band and the choice of poetry

Popular music lyrics have been used to introduce students to poetry (Brenda Guerra has a nice lesson plan on the subject). We recently had an overnight at the school and the students elected to play Rock Band. It was clearly indicated that the songs they played would have to have language acceptable to the Middle School. Among the song choices they made was Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”.

I’d considered “Living on a Prayer” as one option for poetry reading but rejected it because I wasn’t sure that lines like, “she brings home her pay for love” would be quite appropriate. What I found most interesting was that even though they sung the song, they did not actually know the words. The game appears to only require them to make sounds of the right length and maybe pitch. So the singing sounded like, “Tommy used to blah blah blah blah.”

So now I think I’ll use the song, but I’m curious to see the response. Will the fact that it’s something they are aware of and play in a game make it more interesting to them? Or will it work the opposite way? We’ll find out.

This song also introduces issues of unions and the way the arts reflect society, both overtly and, in this case apparently, hidden in the music.

Clouds on Mars

Clouds on Mars seen from the Mars Pathfinder

Discover Magazine blogger Phil Plait has a great post showing clouds formed by air rising over the volcanic mountains on Mars (orographic clouds). The simple animation is fascinating to see, but what’s even more interesting is how they were made. The images were taken by Emil Kraaikamp who uses a telescope in what appears to be his backyard. Each image in the series that makes up the animation is a composite from images taken with red, blue and green filters. Plait has a very good explanation of the process:

I love this, because it shows how using filters tells you a lot about what you’re seeing. Note that in the red Mars is fairly smooth, with some dark spots. The red dust covers the planet, so it smooths out features (though the ice caps are obvious). In the green you’re just starting to see a hint of clouds, and then in the blue the clouds pop right out.

Combine them, and you have Mars. Another world, seen through what most people would consider a small telescope here on Earth.

Photography is a wonderful medium for combining science and art as you manage the exposure to create interesting effects. If you understand a little about how cameras work, the page on the equipment used to take the pictures is quite fascinating.

The Big Bang

Good blogging style, like good presentations, should be multi-modal. On the internet we’re limited to text, images and sound/video so we do the best we can. I tend to be text oriented so I try to add an image to each post. In an earlier post on how science works I snagged an image by cédric sorel that he contributed to Wikipedia.

Artist's impression of the Big Bang. By cédric sorel: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_bang.jpg

Each time I see this interpretation of the Big Bang I am astonished once again. The textures give the impression of a three-dimensional cut-away, and the detail in the spiral galaxies swirling away from the center just pulls my attention like a strong magnet lines up iron filings.

The image is in the public domain and a high resolution version can be found on the Wikimedia Commons page (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_bang.jpg).