28.Jul.2010 Quote – Textbooks are the hummer of higher education
Textbooks, with or without the bundled DVDs, are…”The Hummer of higher education.”
Judy Baker and Anya Kamenetz “The Real Cost of College Textbooks” NYTimes online.
27.Jul.2010 Quote – Haruki Murakami
Still, some might read this book and say, “hey, I’m going to give running a try, and then discover they enjoy it. And of course that would be a beautiful thing. As the author of this book I’d be very pleased if that happened. But people have their own individual likes and dislikes. Some people are suited more for marathon running, some for gold, others for gambling. Whenever I see students in gym class all made to run a long distance, I feel sorry for them. Forcing people who have no desire to run, or who aren’t physically fit enough, is a kind of pointless torture. I always want to advise teachers not to force all junior and senior high school students to run the same course, but I doubt anybody’s going to listen to me. That’s what schools are like. The most important thing we ever learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.
Haruki Murakami, What I talk about when I talk about Running (p. 45)
I ran like a 12 minute mile in high school (sad I know). I remember not being able to run even a 1/4 mile (once around the track), but that any student that ran it under 8 minutes got a free soda. No soda for me!
Maybe the PE teacher should have given me a diet soda…
Music – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros: “Home”
Popularized most recently by a Levi’s commercial…I’m digging the tune.
13.Jul.2010 Quote – Pat Welsh “Is college overrated?”
70% of the freshman class is likely to end up not with a diploma but a pile of debt.
USA Today, “Is college overrated?” by Patrick Welsh
All I have to say is, “Boooooooo!!!!”
09.Jul.2010 Quote – Richard Vedder
In the zeal to get students, [colleges and universities] are going after them on the basis of recreational amenities.
Richard Vedder, from the NYTimes article “Study: Colleges Spent More on Recreation Than Instruction” by Sam Dillon
02.Jul.2010 Quote – Michael Spector
When you start down the road where belief in magic replace evidence in science you end up in a place you don’t want to be.
Michael Spector [http://www.michaelspecter.com/], TED Talk “The danger in science denial”
28.Jun.2010 Technology, the US and soccer #kmdp2puDJ
If you were cheering or blowing your vuvuzela for a native English speaking team this world cup, odds are you believe the refs screwed you, your team, and your World Cup championship aspirations. Goals for both the American and UK players were withheld, while the ESPN and ABC commentators added their own razzle dazzle special effects to prove the validity of the goal and the terribly bad judgement/eye sight–or is it bias?–of the international referees trying their best to call a fair and balanced football match.
As a US-based spectator, my view of the referees and those specific calls (as well as the opinions of my immediate social circle) are all clouded. Technology is the culprit. It’s made me terribly easy to sway with facts, figures, statistics and even images and replays that the rest of the world (including the refs) are not privy to. In fact, I’d say the ESPN-loving, 24 hour sports new channel watching fans in the US are spoiled with technology.
Soccer is not our forte in the US. On a professional level it’s not nearly as popular as the big 4 (or perhaps even golf, Nascar or tennis for that matter). What is popular in every sport though, is the US flavor of augmented reality for sports. The graphical overlay, super-slo-mo in HD and other technology-intensive methods that help the general public digest what just happened in a sporting game. It may have been too fast for the ump, ref or official to notice, but the general public (through replay, coach’s challenge or booth review) becomes an embedded participant in athletic fairness moderated by technology.
Which is perhaps why we have so much trouble with FIFA and the World Cup play. That level of participation is simply not available. There’s no replay (except on our TV) and fairness is moderated by human fallibility manifested in the referees on the field rather than the technological aids provided to the “booth” or referees on the field. When a bad call ruins the day for a pitcher in the US, the ump apologizes and he hugs it out with the player he fouled. When it happens at the World Cup there’s little discourse. Instead it seems that the public takes to other technological channels (e.g. the ref’s Wikipedia page) to slay their opponent online while the game in question is altered in a significant, yet unknowable way. As spectators used to knowing the outcome unequivocally (technology doesn’t lie) we’re left sulking and thinking ‘if only’ we could fix the World Cup technologically and put these issues to rest. ESPN certainly doesn’t help with their coverage and augmented view through sports’ replay. While watching any of the Cup coverage just wait for them to acknowledge their technological superiority. As one ESPN Anchor said as they rotated the frozen image of German and English players on the field to better highlight the goal plane and the ball which had undoubtedly crossed it: “look at our technology”.
Should FIFA adopt goal line technology and the instant replay mentality of US-sports? Maybe. Or maybe they should maintain the human touch and human error that makes World Cup play so exciting. Who’s to say that the introduction of technology wouldn’t change things for the worse? After all, if the US goal had been allowed would Koman Coulibaly even have a page in Wikipedia?
24.Jun.2010 Ultimate Happiness (in a photo)
Priceless.
18.Jun.2010 Quote – I can has Cheezburger in Paradise
If the wacky cats are a fad, they are one that has had surprising staying power, as shown by a recent Cheezburger happy-hour event at Safeco Field before a Seattle Mariners game.
More than 1,000 fans turned up to listen to cat-themed songs blasted over the loudspeakers, snack on miniature cheeseburgers, slurp from plastic cups of beer and pose for pictures with Mr. Huh.
Jenna Wortham, Once Just a Site With Funny Cat Pictures, and Now a Web Empire, NYTimes
wow.
17.Jun.2010 Lose your career? Here’s a voucher!
Caught this from one of my favorite sites: “Colleges not training students to growing fields“. It’s interesting to me because on NPR this morning (DC) there was a guy talking about the lose of jobs due to computers vs. the oil rig fiasco in the Gulf.
Either way, he proposed, out of work American’s should get vouchers to go to school, get life coaching, trade schooling, certificates, etc. because “an individual knows better what to do in order to find work” than some government agency. I’m not proposing the opposite, but it seems to me that sometimes the individual doesn’t or can’t really know what job or career path they should be pursuing. Passion is one thing, but getting knocked out of a job due to IT integrations doesn’t necessarily mean that the person had a good fix on what they wanted to do before either.
I’m all for developing the out of work workforce, but guidance is a necessary endeavor (there’s a reason the 50s/60s had such a high focus on math, science and engineering; and it wasn’t individually driven. It was a national goal).
Just saying.
