American kids rank low worldwide. I was worried for my grandkids. No more.This one young man may, single-handedly change the way our kids and their kids learn. It’s very exciting. I got introduced when I read this month’s Vanity Fair. It’s below. My excitement really got going when I watched his Ted Talk from 2011:
Please take ten minutes out of your day to watch this talk. It’s engrossing. It gets better as it progresses. Bill Gates appears at the end, but looks like a slump compared to the pure genius of Salman Kahn. About a million children (and adults) presently are using the courses on the Kahn Academy. For his Ted talk, click here.
Vanity Fair Portrait: Salman Khan by Arne Duncan
Salman Khan in the office where he made his first instructional video, at his home in Mountain View, California. Photograph by Annie Leibowitz (one of our country’s best photographers)
Ten years ago, a financial analyst between jobs made a few videos to help a young cousin with her homework. Today, Salman Khan’s YouTube channel has hit 400 million views, and his Khan Academy is changing the way kids learn-for free. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan assesses the impact of one singular mind.
When Salman Khan sat down to make his first video, 10 years ago, he never had any intention of changing the way my kids learn. Sal, as he likes to be called, was doing a favor for his young cousin, who was struggling with math. A then 28-year-old finance whiz between jobs, he had no experience with either teaching or video. But he wanted to walk her through a few lessons, using an online illustration program and his own, enthusiastic voice. The product was a bite-size few minutes of instruction, with only a simulated blackboard for visuals.
A few more cousins and family friends got involved and a handful of lessons became a collection, posted to a public Web site. And that’s when Sal Khan’s family tutorial sparked a worldwide phenomenon. His few viewers turned to thousands a month as families discovered the site and spread the word. Philanthropist Bill Gates walked in to find his kids using Khan Academy and added his support. Thousands of users grew to millions. All of it was, and remains, free.
Khan’s videos, which are unfailingly charming and engaging, multiplied across subjects and helped to power a small revolution called “the flipped classroom.” Students can pick up a new skill working alone with a video, and teachers can use class time to deepen skills and answer questions. Just as important, students who have an easy time with the material can race ahead, while those who are struggling can repeat a lesson without fear of embarrassment. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a great tool in teachers’ tool kits, and it’s a welcome force to shake up some old patterns. Now the College Board has found value in Sal’s vision, partnering with Khan Academy to offer free tutorials for the revised 2016 S.A.T.’s.
After Khan Academy became famous, I pointed it out to my kids. They’ve devoured it, taking subjects, including coding, which their school doesn’t offer. They use it to supplement what they learn in school, and they say it’s fun-which is not always the report you hear from pre-teen students. The remarkable appetite for Khan’s work-his YouTube channel has hit 400 million views-has made him into a bit of an edu-superstar. But you’d never know it to meet him. Unfailingly humble, he comes across just as he is-a kind and exceptionally intelligent person who wants to help young people understand their world. Sal’s mind is sharp enough to do just about anything-we’re lucky that he’s harnessed his talents to make our world smarter. (My bolding.)
Cyber-Security is hot. Here are four. This one is the newest of the bunch. It’s from Israel. I own it. It’s on the list of Stocks, ETFS and Funds We Own — see right hand column. We’ve done well with it.
This one is the Big Mother of the cybersecurity. I use (and pay for) its Norton Internet Security product on every computer the family has. It’s superb. It protects all our tushies. Symantec actually makes money, pays a dividend (has a yield of 2.35%) and sports an OK 18.12 P/E. Maybe I’ll buy some today?
These two don’t make money. They’ve been hot and cold. Now they’re becoming hot again.
I own shares in Cyberark.
Because it’s hot and the threats are only increasing, everyone and their uncle is moving into the field — from CHKP (Checkpoint) to FTNT (Fortinet), to KEYW (KEYW Holding) to (PANW) Palo Alto Networks. Takeovers and mergers are increasing, as everyone searches for The Magic Bullet that can knock off Symantec and place themselves at the top of the profitability heap.
There’s a good writeup on cyber-security stocks here.
Perhaps I’ll nibble at Symantec today.
The contemporary art market continues its madness. This Andy Warhol was just sold:
“Triple Elvis (Ferus Type),” taken from a publicity shot for his 1960 movie “Flaming Star,” had been expected to sell for around $60 million. Christies sold it this week for $69.6 million.
You can read more about the madness in the New York Times piece. Click here.
This is a seriously good product: Especially if you’re obsessive (like me) about keeping all your cables neatly tied.
I like this use:
To buy GearTies, click here.
Screwed up priorities. They don’t have an app to take photos of your incoming checks and bank them by phone. They don’t allow me to send wires from my (declining) bank account with them. But they speak…
God bless Santander. When you hear Bengali. it sounds 100% like Peter Sellers.
Warren Buffett once said, “There are more banks than there are bankers.“
The Polish hunters.
In American folklore, the Poles are stupid. In Switzerland, the Appenzellers are stupid. In Belgium, it’s the French. In England, it’s the Irish. The Canadians have their Newfies. Substitute your own “stupid” in this wonderful story.
Two Polish hunters got a pilot to fly them into the Canadian wilderness, where they managed to bag two big Bull Moose. As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only the hunters, their gear and one Moose.
The hunters objected strongly saying, “Last year we shot two, and the pilot let us take them both…and he had exactly the same airplane as yours.”
Reluctantly the pilot, not wanting to be outdone by another bush pilot, gave in and everything was loaded.
However, even under full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down, crashing in the wooded wilderness.
Somehow, surrounded by the moose, clothing and sleeping bags, Zbyshek and Vladek survived the crash.
After climbing out of the wreckage, Zbyshek asked, “Any idea where we are?”
Vladek replied, “I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”
Harry Newton who’s received calls from friends complaining about the irksome side affects of statins (e.g. Lipitor) and proton pump inhibitors (e.g. Prilosec). Some friends are finding that diet, exercise and rest work. But most importantly, the key is to eat early — at least three hours before you got to bed and get horizontal. The word about the benefits of early dining must be getting out. It’s now impossible to get a restaurant reservation in Manhattan at 6 PM.
Tennis is still playing in London on The Tennis Channel. Awesome matches.
Harry,
Hi! In your opinion, how much longer will bank branches as we know them be around? When do think we start seeing mass closings?
Harry, an 18.12 PE is not that good. When I bought Delta a few weeks ago, the PE was 3. THe stock has since climbed something like 40%.
You know who else could excite a crowd & whip it into a frenzy? Adolph Hitler. Yeah. Speaks volumes, huh? A commanding speaker rarely = sound ideas and principles.
Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. But, it’s true, you have to be wary of them.
Intentional or unintentional, what Sal Khan has done is disrupt the tutoring industry. The reality of our nation is such that the good schools are in the affluent neighborhoods with plenty of resources and the schools that perform poorly are in the lower income neighborhoods with significant lack of resources.
Khan’s work has helped many students who were DRIVEN to succeed do well in school – well enough to get admitted to some of the most selective and highly regarded colleges/universities even though they graduate from some of the worst performing schools. For most of them, a tutor is out of their financial reach yet they did well enough to get scholarships that enabled them to attend institutions that they could only dream of. Because of Khan Academy, these kids are getting life-changing opportunities that would have otherwise been unimaginable to them.
Here is a great example of ONE person doing much more for this nation than those hundreds of useless clowns in D.C. whose job it is to govern but manage to do more harm than good to our nation.
Statins…These conflicted with medical treatments I was taking so my doctor took me off statins and urged me to take Flaxseed Oil capsules. My cholesterol dropped 35 points the first year…my wife started on Flaxseed also now nether of us are on statins and we can eat all the grapefruit we want off the tree in our back yard.
Harry – I don’t know about Flaxseed, but Niacin works as well or better than statins. They need to take a high dose – start at 50 and go to 250 – and they need to spend a little extra to get a time-release. The only side effect is that it can make you feel like you are having a bit of a hot flash, but if they get the time-release, that is minimized. The brand I use is called Enduracin. My cholesterol has dropped 40 points using it.
I’ve used Niacin for decades, originally 3g/day which takes some building up to. It’s great lowering the bad cholesterols and raising the HDL which is good and almost nothing else does that. The downside, as I discovered is that over time Niacin can effect glucose tolerance, and I had to drop down to 500mg/day. Still helps..
The pharmaceutical industry set cholesterol up as a paper dragon and then made a fortune slaying it. Originally total cholesterol was acceptable at 300 mg/dl. Then that number was lowered to 240 mg/dl. Then 200 mg/dl. Then I heard a doctor telling an interviewer on NPR that in many cases it should be 170 mg/dl. The interviewer asked, “Doctor, what kind of a diet would someone need to be on to get their cholesterol that low?” The doctor laughed and said “Oh, you can’t do it with diet, you need to medicate.”
As a chiropractor, I learned how harmful statins could be. They break down muscle tissue. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949584/ . We had a number of patients reporting muscle pain throughout their body. At first I didn’t know what was causing this, but I came to learn that a common denominator was the statin drugs they were taking. One memorable case was a 38 year old man who had pain in all his muscles and no energy for 4 months. I could see from his history that he was taking Lipitor for cholesterol. I advised him to tell his medical doctor and say that his chiropractor suggested his pain could be from the medication. He did and his doctor took him off Lipitor and gave him a different med for the cholesterol. In just 3 days he reported to me that the pain was gone and felt like a new man!
By the way, Lipitor ain’t cheap……I think it’s around $80 a month. In Mexico, people eat the nopales cactus or take nopales capsules. It’s just as effective, has no side effects and costs about $6 a month. http://www.naturalnews.com/034996_nopal_cactus_antioxidants_blood_glucose.html
People need to realize that:
– medicine is a business……businesses are not altruistic – they exist to make money
– no one cares about your health as much as you do
– just as Harry says with investments, etc……check, check, check – you can find marvelous information on the internet you won’t hear about anywhere else
– Ultimately, your health is not the responsibility of your doctor or the pharmaceutical industry…….it’s yours……..take it seriously
Kahn is the man. Great what he is doing. I use his site all the time….What do you do with a stock like CYBR after a day like yesterday – sell or hold?
FYI – In Canadian folklore, the Newfies (Newfoundlander’s) are stupid.
Newfies are funny, funny people…they tell jokes and laugh about themselves all the time. They are really very friendly people. Drinking their Skreetch rum helps.