The Brian Lehrer Show: Minority Rules

The Brian Lehrer Show

Minority Rules

Thursday, April 05, 2007

At some selective schools, certain Asian-Americans are categorized as “over-represented minorities.” We talk about what that means for education and racial justice in America. An expert on the middle east discusses Syria and the Iraq war, and we explore hydropower on the Hudson. Also, proving diversity is better than homogeneity; and listeners vote for the most important stories in the news this week.

What’s News and What It Means, and Why It’s Important.

Brian talks about what's in the news and what it all means.

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And Syria?

Rami Khouri, director of a public policy think tank at the American University in Beirut and editor-at-large of the Daily Star in Beirut, discusses the role of Syria in the current tensions with Iran.

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Water Works

Dean Corren, director of Technology Development for Verdant, and Beth Fertig, WNYC reporter talk about the use of hydropower in New York City.

Beth Fertig's hydropower report

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The More the Merrier

Scott Page, professor of complex systems, political science and economics at the University of Michigan and the author of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies (Princeton University Press, 2007), says he can prove diversity beats homogeneity -- in the ...

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Minority Rules

Jeff Yang, columnist at San Francisco Chronicle.com, and author on Asian-American issues, weighs in on whether Asian-Americans are overrepresented in selective schools.

From the WSJ: Is Admissions Bar Higher for Asians?

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Brian's Video Picks

If you can't see the video click here

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Watch Brian Lehrer's web video review as broadcast on his weekly show on CUNY TV.

View links to the original videos

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PUZZLES!

The results for today's experiment with live collaborative puzzle-solving probably didn't do much to prove the adage "two (or three) heads are better than one," but it was a lot of fun. "Puzzlemaster" Scott Page gave us these two brain teasers to illustrate some of the points from his book <a href="Amazon.com">The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies and results for the first one are still coming in. Here are the puzzles and some of the better solutions follow after the jump.

Food puzzle:
Name three foods or beverages, any two of which go well together, but which are virtually inedible when all of them are mixed together.
Example: Chicken with pineapple; Chicken with Mole Sauce (chocolate); Pineapple with chocolate all work, but the three together would not.
Example: Beer with 7Up (shandy); Beer with whiskey (boilermaker); whiskey with 7Up (7 & 7), but the three would make you sick.

Rope puzzle:
You have two ropes that each take one hour to burn, but they have knots so they don't burn uniformly. Can you use them to mark off 45 minutes of time?

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Beth Fertig on Hydropower

Beth Fertig on Hydropower

Originally uploaded by wnyc.

Beth Fertig, WNYC reporter, joined us on The Brian Lehrer Show to discuss her recent report on hydropower in Manhattan's waterways. ...

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Too many Asians?

Too many Asians?

Originally uploaded by wnyc.

Jeff Yang, columnist at San Fransico Chronicle.com, and author on Asian-American issues, weighs in on whether Asian-Americans are overrepresented in selective schools. ...

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