09.28.06
Posted in education, politics at 4:50 pm by kevin
ALA: Banned Books Week
It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t had time to blog as much as I’d like… however, right now I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that this week is my favorite of the “theme” weeks: namely, it’s Banned Books Week!
The American Library Association has a ton of great resources (linked above) - peruse them at your leisure. Fodder for comments: how many of the top 100 have you read?
PS - a note, the necessity of which both saddens and amuses me greatly: for the purposes of the above question, Where’s Waldo? counts as one book, no matter how many in the series you have read.
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09.26.06
Posted in politics at 9:39 pm by kevin
Women hit glass ceiling in N.J. politics
Yeah, but the candidate featured in the article - Linda Stender - is one of the women that actually has a shot at a congressional seat. And as a bonus, she’s actually from my hometown of Scotch Plains, NJ!
Man, it would be great if I actually liked my Congressman - which, since the time I came to political consciousness (sometime in high school, I’d say), would be a first.
Note to self (and to all): remember to vote!
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Posted in entertainment at 9:19 pm by kevin
Agency makes breaking up easier
a) Haven’t we seen this before, albeit of another name?
b) I know this is playing to national stereotypes, but really… is anyone surprised that it’s the Germans that are the latest to take up an impersonal and brutally efficient way of institutionalizing interpersonal communication?
On a more serious note, I wonder if something like this isn’t the answer for some people I know who are in deeply dysfunctional relationships that they just can’t seem to get out of. Someone once told me that it takes an average of 8 attempts for a woman to leave an abusive relationship; I don’t know if that’s true, but it sure sounds at least close to the mark (based on my admittedly deeply limited sample of friends and acquaintances). At any rate, I wonder if involving a third party like this silly agency could help make the break-ups stick, if only by raising the proverbial stakes and adding a layer of momentum to the decision once it’s been reached.
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Posted in politics at 9:13 pm by kevin
In Iraq, a Journalist in Limbo
The title of this post somewhat belies my view.
Perhaps there really is evidence that Associated Press photojournalist Bilal Hussein is an Iraqi insurgent; if so, the U.S. Army should charge him, or at least share some scrap of said evidence with some sort of judicial authority.
Every day that goes by with Bilal Hussein in an Army prison is yet another brick in the castle of suspicion that his detention is not about protecting the public, but about protecting the Army’s image.
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Posted in politics at 9:00 pm by kevin
Kid-Friendly Policies Don’t Help Singles
As someone who doesn’t plan on having kids, I am acutely aware of the inequity described in this piece. In short, it’s unfair that taking time off to have (or care for) kids is preferenced over taking time off to complete a degree (or travel, or relax, or do any one of a number of other personally and socially utile things).
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09.22.06
Posted in politics at 3:36 pm by kevin
Audit finds Education Dept. missteps
“Missteps” is a fairly generous summary of what amounts to gross corruption in the Education Department’s “Reading First” program. To wit:
It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director’s views and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money.
In one e-mail, the director told a staff member to come down hard on a company he didn’t support, according to the report released Friday by the department’s inspector general.
“They are trying to crash our party and we need to beat the (expletive deleted) out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags,” the Reading First director wrote, according to the report.
Blatant favoritism based on an equal mix of ideological fervor and straight corruption… now, what does that remind me of? Wait for it, wait for it… oh, right.
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09.20.06
Posted in entertainment at 11:09 pm by kevin
Man bites panda after zoo attack
Umm…
Newspaper photographs showed him lying on a hospital bed with blood-soaked bandages over his legs.
“I bit the panda on its back but its fur was too thick,” Mr Zhang recalled.
He went on: “No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it.”
With that in mind, a word of general warning: just because it’s cute doesn’t mean it won’t maul (or, at least, bite) you.
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09.19.06
Posted in entertainment at 8:49 pm by kevin
It’s Talk Like A Pirate Day!
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Posted in politics at 6:30 pm by kevin
Thai PM ‘overthrown in army coup’
I realize that this may just be a function of poor translation, but a coup announcement that includes the phrase, “We ask for the co-operation of the public and ask your pardon for the inconvenience” just strikes me as funny.
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Posted in education at 1:09 pm by kevin
Princeton Drops Early Admissions
Following Harvard, Princeton is dropping its early admission program. This has an even greater impact, since Princeton’s program was Early Decision (the binding kind), and accounted for about half of the freshman class.
Does this mean that a sudden avalanche is on the way? Probably not; at least, most of the other Ivies and other elite schools have indicated that their early admission programs aren’t going anywhere this year. Still, it’s a great step.
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