Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Food: important for the math brain.

Let's start with what not to eat it's a shorter list...lol...

I stole this from an email I got but the info is basic and I have seen it around the web, I think she basically compiled a list of data she gathered herself. She left off foods that have heavy food coloring particularly red...

Find Crewton Ramone on Face Book.

Her name and a link to her site:'

http://www.greattastenopain.com

Sherry Brescia


These foods that are so deadly and harmful that eating
(and drinking) them on a regular basis will certainly chop
years off your life, and guarantee that the years you have
left will be filled with sickness, disease and very likely
obesity.

I call them the Evil Eight.**

I hope this list helps to burn into your brain that in the
same way you can't trust government, politicians, drug
companies and insurance companies with your health, you
cannot trust Big Food manufacturers either. They create
their concoctions to make money. And they know one thing...
if it tastes good, people will eat it.

Information is power. So here's the information you need to
avoid illness and enjoy good health.

Here are the Evil Eight:

1) Soda
========

Oh, I know... boo hoo. But the truth is, ANY soda -- diet
or regular -- is acid in a bottle (or can). It's SO acidic
that it takes 32 CUPS of water to neutralize the acid in
just ONE can of soda in your body.

Having so much acidity puts a tremendous strain on your
kidneys, which filter acid out of your bloodstream and put
it into your urine.

Your body also uses its own alkaline minerals (calcium
from your bones and magnesium from your muscles) to
neutralize the acid. Eventually that can lead to
osteoporosis, weak muscles, tooth decay and brittle, porous
bones that fracture easily.

Plus soda contains the worst form of sugar on the planet --
high fructose corn syrup (more on that further down).

Don't think diet soda is any better -- because here are
the dangers of...


2) Artificial sweeteners
=========================

Simply put, they're poisons. No other way to say it.

Here are just some of the documented side effects of
aspartame (known by the brand names Equal or Nutrasweet):

Eyes:
-Blindness in one or both eyes
-Decreased vision and/or other eye problems such as
blurring, flashes, tunnel vision
-Eye pain; Dry eyes/decreased tears

Nerves:
-Seizures
-Headaches/migraines
-Dizziness
-Confusion/memory loss
-Severe drowsiness and sleepiness
-Numbness of the arms and legs
-Slurring of speech
-Tremors/trembling

Psychological/Psychiatric:
-Severe depression
-Irritability/agitation
-Anxiety/phobias (fears)
-Personality changes

Chest:
-Heart palpitations/rapid heart beat
-Shortness of breath
-High blood pressure

Digestive:
-Nausea
-Diarrhea, sometimes with blood in stools
-Stomach pain/pain while swallowing

Skin and Allergies:
-Itching without a rash; Hives

Endocrine and Metabolic:
-Loss of control of diabetes
-Thinning or loss of hair
-Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
-Severe PMS symptoms

The most severe effects of aspartame poisoning are:
-Death
-Irreversible brain damage
-Birth defects, including mental retardation
-Ulcers
-Aspartame addiction and increased craving for sweets
-Hyperactivity in children
-Severe depression
-Aggressive behavior
-Suicidal tendencies
-Cancer


Think Splenda is just splendid? It's no better.

Studies are associating Splenda with a growing list of
medical problems that include:

- Flushing or redness of the skin; rashes
- Anxiety; panic attacks
- Nausea; bloating; diarrhea; vomiting
- Stomach cramps
- Depression; becoming withdrawn
- Feeling forgetful; memory loss
- Headaches
- Feeling irate, impatient, hypersensitive, moody
- Chest and body pains
- Seizures

If you want to use a non-calorie sweetener, use Stevia.
It's been around for centuries and has a proven track
record of safety.


3) High fructose corn syrup
===========================

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is directly associated
with the following conditions:

- Kidney disease
- Osteoporosis
- High cholesterol
- Raised insulin levels (leading to diabetes)
- High uric acid levels (which can result in arthritis)
- Obesity

And the newest one: Mercury exposure

Mercury is a poison to your brain and nervous system. It
has been linked to fertility problems, memory and vision
loss, and trouble with blood pressure regulation. It can
also cause chronic fatigue and neuro-muscular dysfunction.

Mercury exposure has also been linked to autism, heart
disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

The problem here is HFCS is found in just about every type
of product on the market including:

Soda
Ketchup
Salad dressings
Sports drinks
Cough medicines
Jellies and jams
Yogurt
Ice cream
Cereals
Snack chips and crackers
Breads
Candies
Syrups
Pickle relish
Non-dairy whipped topping
Granola bars
Lunchables
Packaged pastries, snack cakes and cookies

Can you believe that food manufacturers would put this
poison in our foods? Well, believe it. It's called
profits...

So what should you do? Read labels and find alternatives.
Organic products typically don't contain HFCS.



4) Hydrogenated oils
=====================

Hyrdogenated and partially hydrogenated oils contain trans-
fatty acids, which are fats that are not found in nature,
and that your body CANNOT metabolize. Instead, they just
accumulate, clog your arteries, and cause inflammation,
cell damage and heart attacks.

These bad fats are found in deep fried foods, margarine,
baked goods, powdered and artificial coffee creamers, and
most processed (packaged) foods.

Look for the words "hydrogenated" or "partially
hydrogenated" on package labels. If you see them, do NOT
buy the product.


5) Nitrite cured meats
========================

Cured meats made with sodium nitrite (or sodium nitrate)
include hot dogs, lunch meat, bacon, ham and corned beef.

When you eat nitrites, they can be converted into
nitrosamines (which are potent cancer-causing chemicals) in
your body. The primary types of cancers associated with
nitrite consumption are colo-rectal, stomach and pancreatic.

In addition, children born to women who ate a lot of cured
meats during pregnancy are from two to three times more
likely to develop a brain tumor than those born to mothers
who did not eat cured meats.

Another study showed processed meats increased the risk of
pancreatic cancer (the deadliest of all cancers) by 67%.

Nifty, huh?


6) Processed foods
===================

Processed "foods" include all packaged foods (in boxes,
cans, jars, bags or frozen cartons) that contain
ingredients other than a basic food. Although the appeal
behind them is convenience and indefinite shelf life, they
are extremely unhealthy and loaded with chemicals and
preservatives that your body was never meant to ingest.

Besides the chemicals they contain, processed foods are
harmful to your health for these reasons:

* They provide no usable naturally occurring nutrients;
they use up loads of digestive energy, and then basically
turn to nothing but waste.

* They contain no water to transport nutrients or carry
away wastes from your body, like fruits and vegetables do.
Instead, they add to the waste pile, making you very toxic.

* Your body's hunger feeling is triggered by a need for
nutrients from real food -- not just something to occupy
space in the stomach. Since processed "foods" don't
nourish you, even though your stomach may be physically
full, the body thinks it still needs more food because it
hasn't gotten nourished from what is in the stomach.
That's why you can polish off an entire family-size bag of
Doritos then feel hungry again an hour later. No nutrition.

It's a recipe for obesity.


7) Farmed salmon
=================

Farmed salmon are crammed into little pens and fed things
they were never meant to ingest like soy, poultry litter,
and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed
salmon is lower in vitamin D than fresh caught and higher
in contaminants such as carcinogens, PCBs, and pesticides
like dioxin and DDT.

Rule of thumb: Eat wild-caught fish, not farm-raised.



8) Tap water
=============

All water is NOT created equal. Since our bodies are
alkaline, our water must be alkaline too. Thanks to acid
rain and the chemicals added by municipalities, that's not
always a given.

Regular (unfiltered) tap water is acidic and contains
toxins like flouride and chlorine. Avoid tap water (this
includes water fountains) at ALL possible cost, no matter
what you may read in the news or your local politician may
tell you.

The best sources of alkaline water are distilled water or
filtered water (using reverse osmosis, Brita filters or
similar filtering).

There you have them -- the Evil Eight.

(c) copyright 2010 Holistic Blends

=============

**The FDA has not evaluated all of these statements. The
contents of this email are not to be considered medical
advice and are for educational purposes only. If you are
experiencing health challenges, always consult your doctor
for medical advice and follow it even if it contradicts the
contents of this email.**

=====================================

Crewton Ramone's House of Math

Thursday, August 19, 2010

10 Year Olds do the Math

base 10 manipulatives
These are a couple of exceptionally bright 10 year olds who came to a two hour session for enrichment not because they are having trouble.... If you would like more info about Math Tutoring on Maui go here.

They start the class with a simple whole brain warm up exercise where they have to build the addends for 7 thru 10. They have to use both hands simultaneously and they race me. I also have a tray. Right now they cannot beat me but soon the students will surpass the master...


Here is a shot of them using the blocks. They are racing to see who can get the problem st done first. We did the basic one step percentage problems, there are 3 kinds:
20% of 60 =?
24 is 60% of what number?
What % of 70 is 21?

We did a bunch of problems for each kind, then we did a mash up where all three kinds were in the problem set. It's always more fun with two or more students because we can race and get more problems done in less time.

mortensen math percentages
Just for fun I taught them how to convert base ten to binary but forgot to snap a picture or two then we moved on to percentages. Here you see the problems and sketch of the solutions plus a matrix for the second problem so they can arrange their thoughts. They were using the blocks to figure these out at first then moved on to drawing them.


We spent a lot of time on binary conversion and percentages and they begged me to do algebra. That's not an exaggeration. So for the last 40 min or so we did some factoring. Started off easy and worked our way up. Here the student is doing a fast sketch and the writing the symbols...



What you don't see is the time we spent modeling these problems with the blocks. The base ten blocks are like training wheels, and these two wanted them to come off as soon as possible. Here we went directly to symbols no sketches no blocks...



You can tell how confident they are by asking "do you want an easy one or a hard one?" By the end of it they were saying, "give us some hard ones!!" Of course there are no hard ones when you understand what you are doing. (BTW x2-18x - 81 cannot be factored, but x2 - 81 can. Look for a lesson on the difference of two squares soon.) They have fun and get a sense of satisfaction because they know much older kids who have a hard time with these...I will remind you that these are 10 year old boys.

This is a bad shot but shows economy of symbol. We don't need to write (x-9) twice. We talked about square numbers and what that meant. Soon they will be evaluating these for various values of x. Ie f(x)=5 or 10 or 2 etc...and they will see the result is always square. When it was over they thanked me profusely. One of them who was coming for the first time admitted that he thought it was going to suck but instead he had a good time and couldn't wait for the next session.

Neither can I.


Crewton Ramone Does Algebra With 4 and 5 Year Olds.



More at Crewton Ramone's House of Math.


Thursday, August 12, 2010

Social Media Management

Here is a website I have been working on. Has more to do with math than you might think.

Internet marketing is a numbers game.

Social Media is growing exponentially in that realm. People are figuring out how to use social media in commerce.

Enter The Social Media Manager.


Maui Social Media Manager.

http://www.jfsag.com/social-media-manager.html


Note: the website is still very much under construction.

I have been using these principals to promote Crewton Ramone's House of Math, and guess what? It works. I get clients off my Facebook page and I have managed to get to the top of quite a few search engine listings...type in "math tutor Maui" or "Maui math tutor" for example.

But I also rank highly for "Mortensen math" and actually higher than the Mortensen Company for "Mortensen Math Tutor" which makes me laugh.

Now I am going to start using this knowledge to help some local business on Maui...and make a penny or two for myself while I'm at it...

Sunday, August 1, 2010

More sensory input = more understanding.

The mathematics expresses reality numerically...music: the beautiful expression of the Mathematics...




Advanced use of the mathematics and music to create virtual manipulatives to increase understanding. The blocks are primitive in comparison but the principle is the SAME.