Who Are You? What Do You Want? Where Are You Going? Whom Do You Serve – And Whom Do You Trust?!
Well, I don’t know WHAT inspired the sole response to my last clue. But here’s another one: Disney (along with Chevron Oil [sic – most likely Standard Oil of California]) was a co-investor, with Dr. Ariel, in the Coto Research Center.
Update: Congratulations to reader Debby on the correct response (see comments).
High schools at the Los Angeles Unified School District, home of the mammoth Belmont Learning Center boondoggle, have a district average 50% dropout rate. Schools in the “inner city” exceed 70% dropouts.
But the system is being challenged, and quite successfully, it seems, by the not-for-profit Green Dot Public Schools, who have started five small charter high schools within the LAUSD.
All this is not such big news; across the nation, charters are regularly outperforming traditional schools. What is particularly interesting here is that, while most charters shun teacher’s unions, Green Dot and the CTA are working in concert (article reprinted in full, emphasis mine):
“Welcome, ambassadors,” says Jose Urias to ninth-graders entering his classroom at Animo Leadership High School in Los Angeles. “The Organization of American States is now in session.”
Seated in roundtable formation, students take turns describing the problems in their respective countries and offering historical perspective.
“Our problem in Peru is cocaine production,” says Mayra Campos. “They grow cocaine because they get more money for this than growing cocoa.”
Her project partner, Nelson Palamo, points out that the problem won’t be solved until farmers can make enough money to feed their families by growing legitimate crops.
The students, nearly all of them Hispanic, are enrolled in a class on the History of the Americas, co-created by their 27-year-old teacher, Urias. Last year the course was accredited by the University of California system as meeting a world history requirement.
By giving teachers the freedom to design their own curriculum, pick their own textbooks and teach the way they want to, Animo, a charter school that is proud to treat teachers as professionals, is attracting teachers in flocks. Teachers also enjoy the small campus with approximately 400 students.
“Teachers have a lot of input when it comes to decision-making here,” says Urias. He and Mario Alcala are co-presidents of the Asociacion de Maestros Unidos chapter of CTA.
“We are given a lot of autonomy and treated like professionals. We are provided with assistance and do not have a top-down management structure.
“What we do have here is AB 2160,” he says, referring to the CTA-sponsored legislation that would have allowed chapters to bargain procedures by which teachers could have a say in the selection of curriculum, textbooks and professional development. As it is, such critical decisions are left solely in the hands of administrators and school boards.
Animo Leadership Charter High School opened in 2000 and is one of two college-prep schools operated by Green Dot Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school developer. In 2002, Green Dot opened its second campus, Animo Inglewood Charter High School.
Both schools begin with freshmen and add one grade level per year. They serve mostly low-income minority students, many of them English language learners. Green Dot founder and CEO Steve Barr plans to open 100 high schools in the Los Angeles area over the next decade. Animo Leadership, chartered by the Lennox Elementary School District, got a 4 on the API, but received a 10 when compared to similar schools.
While some charter schools exploit teachers, Barr says his vision of a charter is a “teacher empowerment act.” This, he explains, means “putting more dollars into the classroom where they belong – and into teacher pockets.” The school receives approximately 90 percent of the amount per pupil as the Los Angeles Unified School District, but pays teachers 10 percent more. And Green Dot has already built up a cash reserve of $300,000 even though it has to rent facilities. Part of the reason is that Green Dot schools have less bureaucracy than a typical district.
When faculty members told Barr they would like to be part of CTA, Barr said fine. “A lot of people in the charter school community said, ‘What the hell are you doing?'” he recalls. “But teachers need to know they have some stability. And if you are bent on systemic change within the urban school environment, the biggest player is the teachers union. I want us to be partners with the union at all our schools.”
“The best thing about being part of CTA is that it brings credibility to the school,” says math teacher Rob Clifford. “Sometimes we meet teachers from traditional schools who are suspicious of us. We tell them we are a public school and a union school. We have a contract.”
“Working for Green Dot Public Schools has the feel of working for a startup company,” says Clifford, noting that teachers are given cell phones and laptop computers, and that students have access to laptops. “I don’t feel like I am working for a large, institutionalized facility. I know every student here.”
He says he feels pushed to be creative. “Some teachers here get competitive. It’s like, ‘Wow, you’re doing something really exciting. I better do something exciting, too.'”
In one of his class projects, students studying probability and statistics surveyed all students regarding elective courses they would like to see. As a result, a drama teacher, Craig Robinson, was hired last year.
Since Animo Leadership, which shares space with a law school, did not have a stage, Robinson and his students built one.
At Animo, all but one of the teachers are under age 30. At lunchtime, they can be found playing volleyball with students, strumming guitars or sitting with students on the lawn. Many work after school with students in clubs or sports, and frequently take students on field trips – sometimes across the country – to look at colleges.
“We really push the idea of going to college,” says English teacher Lisa Flores, one of three instructors who took students to Boston colleges over spring break last year. “In fact, one of our graduation requirements is that students must apply to three colleges. These kids are 98 percent Latino, and a large number of them will be the first member of their family to graduate from high school. A lot of the teachers here come from similar backgrounds and want to show them they can succeed.”
Flores brings energy and enthusiasm to Animo. Recently, her students brought music to play for classmates and had to explain why the lyrics could be considered poetry.
She meets with parents regularly and arrives an hour before school each day to coach the cheerleading squad.
“Working here is not for everybody,” says Barr. “Teachers must work very hard and become leaders immediately. Nobody hands them curriculum and tells them to teach seven periods and leave at 3:30.
“But I am pleasantly surprised over and over again. I have found that if you treat teachers with respect, pay them well and challenge them, wonderful things happen.”
Something I’m much more familiar with than education is the automobile industry. Two decades ago, domestic auto manufacturers and the UAW saw the writing on the wall, and realized that, were American companies to survive, a more cooperative approach, to achieving both higher worker satisfaction and higher product quality, would have to be taken. These things don’t happen overnight, however. But we are finally seeing the results. In September’s (print) issue of Road & Track, the Chevy Cobalt SS beat the Acura RSX type-S in a comparison test. GM trails only Toyota in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey. And, across the country, customers are willing to pay an additional dealer markup for Mustang GTs and Hemi-powered Chryslers.
America’s unions are at a crossroads. And, among them, the teacher’s unions are the most vilified [Reader’s Digest (print) “That’s Outrageous” 9/05 pp. 39-42]. In Japan, secondary school teachers take a personal responsibility in ushering their students on to a university (preferred), or a career. Perhaps some of that is in order here? And should not the teacher’s unions take the lead?
This from Rowan Scarborough at WaTimes:
U.S. Special Operations Command has drafted a war plan that sets up procedures for how its commandos will work with other regional commands across the globe to hunt for senior Islamic terrorists.
The complex plan from SoCom in Tampa, Fla., has been in the works since summer 2002, when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed a secret directive authorizing it. His memo directed SoCom to come up with a plan for dispatching special operations forces on quick notice to virtually any spot in the world to kill or capture terrorists.
The Washington Times learned of the developing plan this week from defense sources, who said it is encountering resistance from some regional headquarters that object to SoCom operating autonomously in their territory. The plan has yet to be presented to Mr. Rumsfeld.
[…]
In early 2003, Mr. Rumsfeld elevated SoCom to a status equal to war-fighting commands, such as Central Command, which plan their own battles and executions. Until then, SoCom had only supported war-fighting commands. He also designated SoCom as the global command in the war on Islamic terrorists.
Frankly, I’m rather amazed in that this was so long in coming.
Hat Tip: LGF
As no-one seems to have a clue on my last movie trivia question, I’ve decided to give you one: Gideon Ariel.
Ronald Bailey writes in Hit & Run:
“The white populations of the District, Arlington and Alexandria have grown this decade even as the region’s outer counties have grown more diverse, according to new census estimates,” according to a story in yesterday’s Washington Post. As a part-time resident of DC, I was curious about the Post’s take on the idea of what constitutes increasing or decreasing diversity in any community. The Post noted that the percentage of whites living in town rose from 28.2 percent in 2000 to 30.3 percent in 2004. My puzzlement is whether this represents an increase in “diversity” or not? Or as the Post story seems to imply, is “diversity” maximized when no white people live in a community at all? Just wondering.
Hat Tip: Eugene Volokh
I’m just reflecting on this comment from Mike Barnett, to my post on the new FX series Over There:
I found this show as offensive as the posters the Nazis printed during WWII to demoralize our troops. Additionally, the errors in depicting various aspects of military personell, training, and procedures were so laughably innacurate that they made M*A*S*H look like a Korean War documentary. For Bochco to claim that his political beliefs do not influence the storyline is beyond absurd. I had to turn it off halfway through the second episode, and I will never watch it again. In fact, I was so offended by it that FX is now blocked on my TV. I will miss ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘The Shield’, but I can not, in good consience, watch a network that would run a show so blatantly anti-military, and in my opinion, anti-American.
I just wonder how many firefighters have blocked FX in response to their portrayal in Rescue Me, or police officers for their portrayal in The Shield?
Apparently, he thinks we all think the same way:
Every one that I admire is wrong about the drug war. And I mean every one.
The Libertarians I hang around with try to pretend that drugs aren’t all that bad. The usual drug that is called not bad is Marijuana. Marijuana is not bad, it–and by inference other drugs–ought to be legalized.
The Rightists I know and admire tend to over-exaggerate the consequences of drug use. Drugs are not only not bad, they are really really bad.
The Leftists I know seem to be a mixed bag on this. Some of them mimmicking the Libertarian position, others of them mimmicking the Rightist position. Only, instead of spending my money on jail cells for stupid drug users they want to spend my money on rehab for stupid drug users. And on needles. And on publicly funded medical marijuana. And on rehab, again…..
The worst arguments I hear are the back and forth medical statistics. This drug is less risky than tobacco. Users of that drug may experience sudden heart failure. Blah blah blah.
Let me tell you where I stand. Drugs are bad, mmmkay. The biggest problem with drugs are not their long-term effects, but their near term effects. That is, people do things under the influence of drugs that they normally wouldn’t do. I have a problem with that.
But, just because drugs are bad does not mean that they should be illegal. Stupid things that harm others ought to be illegal, not stupid things that harm yourself. And if the worst bads associated with drugs are when you do stupid things to others, then, well, we already have laws to cover those.
No, Rusty: libertines think that drugs aren’t “that bad”. Real libertarians, those that have thought long and hard about it, as I have, realize (not “pretend”) that drugs are neither good or bad. As with guns, drugs are just tools. Powerful and hazardous tools, too be sure, but tools nonetheless. Drug abuse is bad. If drugs themselves where bad, why would we allow doctors to prescribe them?
I am currently watching Thunderball on AMC. Any Bond purist will tell you that the formula was totally fleshed-out with Goldfinger, and reached its highest point with Thunderball. Everything since has been but a pale imitation.
Personally, I think many of the Brosnan Bonds , when compared on a level playing field, surpass all the Connery Bonds. It is just that they are not so impressive relative to their contemporaries.
Oh, and Cpl. Blondie might be happy to know that, last I heard, Ioan Gruffudd was a favorite to be the next Bond. Personally, I would prefer Cary Elwes.
I’m predicting a quick (and correct) response to this one as well. 🙂
While considered a classic today, this film’s innovative use of anthropometrics was lost, on both the critics and the paying public, when it was released.
Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate, wonders:
How can so many people watch this as if they were spectators, handicapping and rating the successes and failures from some imagined position of neutrality? Do they suppose that a defeat in Iraq would be a defeat only for the Bush administration? The United States is awash in human rights groups, feminist organizations, ecological foundations, and committees for the rights of minorities. How come there is not a huge voluntary effort to help and to publicize the efforts to find the hundreds of thousands of “missing” Iraqis, to support Iraqi women’s battle against fundamentalists, to assist in the recuperation of the marsh Arab wetlands, and to underwrite the struggle of the Kurds, the largest stateless people in the Middle East? Is Abu Ghraib really the only subject that interests our humanitarians?
[…]
Question: Why have several large American cities not already announced that they are going to become sister cities with Baghdad and help raise money and awareness to aid Dr. Tamimi? When I put this question to a number of serious anti-war friends, their answer was to the effect that it’s the job of the administration to allocate the money, so that there’s little room or need for civic action. I find this difficult to credit: For day after day last month I could not escape the news of the gigantic “Live 8” enterprise, which urged governments to do more along existing lines by way of debt relief and aid for Africa. Isn’t there a single drop of solidarity and compassion left over for the people of Iraq, after three decades of tyranny, war, and sanctions and now an assault from the vilest movement on the face of the planet? Unless someone gives me a persuasive reason to think otherwise, my provisional conclusion is that the human rights and charitable “communities” have taken a pass on Iraq for political reasons that are not very creditable. And so we watch with detached curiosity, from dry land, to see whether the Iraqis will sink or swim. For shame.
Indeed, it should be universally accepted that we all have a critical vested interest in the outcome of Iraq’s ordeal. Read the whole thing.
Hat Tip: Ann Althouse at InstaPundit
Well, if you can figure it out, you may be interested in this Michael Totten post on InstaPundit.
This seafaring comedy team – stars of both the big and small screen, started their careers as a marionette and a sock-puppet at KTLA in Los Angeles.
… I opined about American Graffiti and Fast Times At Ridgemont High, as being benchmarks of teenage coming-of-age comedies. Let me further this thesis: The last truly great one is American Pie.
The reader should not confuse our subject with that other Meni Suvari flick, American Beauty, also from 1999, and an undeniable nouveau-classic, which also concerned teen “coming-of-age” – but delayed until midlife. One might also not consider this in the same pantheon as American Graffiti or Fast Times. No, we must concede American Pie to the measure of its genre, and relative to its contemporaries. One at least knows this is something different from just another ’90s teen movie, because the student body never spontaneously breaks out in a perfectly choreographed line dance. 🙂
Anyway, I could continue to opine. But, as with the last post, I hope to elicit some worthwhile reader comment.
Update: Just a note here: Googling Allison Hannigan’s name doesn’t come up with her webpage in the first ten anymore. But, three or four years back, I did some work-up on her relative to Buffy. And I found she was second only to Will Wheaton in fan accessibility.
Update II: Ok, here’s a start: Compare/contrast the characters portrayed by Natasha Lyonne to Phobe Cates, Tara Reid to Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jason Biggs to Brian Backer.
As it’s fallen off the front page, I’ll repeat my post for the Movie Trivia Clue for 8/02/05:
WPA Project 891
Of course, you could Google that, and get the answer right now. But let’s allow somebody that knows the answer, and hopefully the backstory, respond first, ok?
Update: What? Googled, and no freaking answer; this is beyond the realm.
Ok, here’s another hint: John Houseman, Orson Wells.
The answer is Cradle Will Rock, Tim Robbins’ 1999 movie about the political controversy surrounding the 1937 play, The Cradle Will Rock, which was initially produced under the WPA’s Federal Theater Project #891 in NYC. John Houseman was the producer, Orson Welles the director, and the writer was Marc Blitzstein. Here’s a pretty good article, for those further interested.
I’m going to have to re-watch this episode of Battlestar Galactica, just to catch all the ramifications.
But again, my principle criticism: technologically, everything is all-too-familiar.
I have just tuned into, for about the third time in the past two months, MSNBC’s Scarborough Country. And the lead story is “Mom: they tricked Natalee.”
Joe: you were pulling up the dregs as it was, being a me too of Bill O’Reilly. Now you are emulating Greta Van Susteran. How can you even walk down the street with your head up?
I am currently feeding our local three-legged ferel cat (Hop-along Kitty), and her two kittens (It is rumored the 8 year-old boy upstairs captured the third, and is in the process of forced domestication.). The passive domestication that I am pursuing with the others is moving along slowly; Hop-along seldom hisses at me anymore when I bring them food.
Tonight, as they dined, I serinaded them with a few bars of Wouldn’t it be loverly. 🙂
…The television was tuned to TBS – Everybody Loves Raymond: Halloween Candy. All I have to say is, any fan of Young Frankenstein will love this.
…I just flipped the TV to Discovery/Times channel. And they are airing Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. This is a real must see.
Here’s the plot so far: The prospective groom’s family can’t afford the price demanded by the bride’s father. So they decide to kidnap her. But, when they go to her town, she is not around. So they set their sights on next best. Her family is all for it, but she doesn’t want to cooperate. And this is all business-as-usual.
Update: This repeats several times, until noon PDT.
Update: After watching the whole thing, I must repeat with emphasis, this is a must see.
WPA Project 891
Of course, you could Google that, and get the answer right now. But let’s allow somebody that knows the answer, and hopefully the backstory, respond first, ok?
Update: What? Googled, and no freaking answer; this is beyond the realm.
Ok, here’s another hint: John Houseman, Orson Wells.
Tom Smith presents an amusing post here, with his critique of the futurist prognostications of super-synth inventor, and extropist, Ray Kurzweil. But he really has his head up his ass.
First, let’s address the topic of the post: His contention that there will be no bio-implanted human-to-machine interfaces in a 50-to-100 year timeframe is absurd. This technology is already developing – most notably in the field of animated prosthetics (bionics, if you will). And the idea that the individual wouldn’t have several layers of firewalls and filters, so that he/she has absolute discretion over his/her exposure to the greater world, is absurd.
But, on to my main motivation for this post – the specifics which prove how off-the-button this idiot is:
If that were in the cards, I think we would have already developed a cure for back pain,
That happened in 1874, idiot. It’s called heroin. But the government won’t let you have it.
lo-cal ice cream that tastes good,
an automatic way to both write and grade exams,
Why would you want to “grade” an exam you were writing? And why would you want a machine to write it for you?
a cure for baldness,
The Bosley technique has been quite successful
and television worth watching.
Well, idiot: Last night, I tuned to my local PBS station, and watched a marvelous two-hour history of Broadway musicals, narrated by the enchanting Julie Andrews. Then I watched the opening episode of Frontier House (perhaps the best “reality” show that’s ever been aired). And I finished my evening with episode 6 of Ken Burns’ Jazz. Tonight, I’m watching TCM: First, I watched Key Largo. And now I’m watching To Have and Have Not (Hoagy himself is worth the whole price of admission). And between them was Robert Osborne’s intelligent, stimulating interview show: Private Screenings: Lauren Bacall.
Nothing on TV worth watching? Take your head out of your ass, and buy a TiVo.
Update: What a nice nightcap: They just played the rarely-seen WB animated short, Bacall to Arms. “Nothing to watch on TV?” I don’t think so.
Hat Tip: InstaPundit
I just switched away from Head Over Heals on USA, in favor of Key Largo on TCM (can you blame me?). And I have only this to say: Monica Potter looks like what Julia Roberts would look like if she were only attractive.
I have always accessed my Earthlink DSL ISP via a WinPoET dialer. Now I’m trying to network my brother (via an Airlink101 AR315W router) to the same Earthlink connection. And, when posed my geek friend, and the Earthlink people with the question, “what if my brother want’s to go online when I’m not?” they said: “you don’t need a dialer with DSL.” What’s with that? WTF was I ever using this? Perhaps I needed it with Win95, but no longer do with 98SE/XP?
Update: This is a bit of a “rock my world” epiphany. I’ve been using this PPPoE dialer for the past four years, and now I find I never needed it?
Update: After shutting down all my browser windows, IMs and email client, I “disconnected”. Then, nothing would work. So, now the Earthlink people tell me I must have a PPPoE dialer with Win98SE. It seems I don’t with XP, which the other machine runs on. But that’s in the other room, turned off, and not even hooked up yet, other than dial-up.
Oh, a task for another day. 🙂
I’ve arraigned for a salvager to come tow away my blown-engine ’94 Escort LX station wagon. He has agreed, sight-unseen – but with a thorough description,. to a price of $125. This might seem like a great deal. considering that I only paid $100 for the car in the first place.
But then consider: I drove the thing for 8 months, at an average of 500 mi/mo (4000mi). I spent $160 to register the car, $40 to smog it, and $180 to insure myself for driving it. It got 23 mi/gal at an average price of about $2.25/gal. Add to this about $60 for money spent on essential service items (oil, wipers, air filter, etc.)
So (sorry I don’t have the HTML so as to form a nice table), here we have:
Net cost: purchase v. sale – $25
registration – $200
Maintenance- Insurance – $180
Fuel – $391.30
Well, surprise The result is only about .20/mi. I’m a bit flabbergasted here; I expected it to be closer to .28.
But than again: .20/mi to drive an unreliable and uncomfortable beater? The mind reels.
I just saw a bit on Discovery about this Thomas Heatherwick designed roll-up footbridge at London’s Paddington Center. And, man, my brain has been kicked into overdrive. You have to understand: It’s few and far between that I see any truly seminal thinking in the world of mechanical structures. But this is one.
And now my brain is in overdrive: First; this structure would be better rolling up as a conch, rather than a disk. And, second, the structure should balance tensile strength against compressive (can you say prestressed?).
And then, what are the military applications? And what of incorporating carbon nanotubes? It boggles the mind. Can you imagine some human designed structure (with an M1A2 tank as insect), which emulates something you might see on the National Geographic Channel, or PBS’ Nature, where some plant deploys a rolled-up pistil, and then some insect lands on it, and walks out to the end?
Ok, here’s another easy one:
This mediocre musical was turned into a classic using an old newspaper and a loose floorboard.
Update: Oh, c’mon, folks; this is an eazzzzzy one.
Where is Stryker, who was braging about his “massive” video collection (don’t we men tend to brag about “massiveness?)? 🙂
Where is Sgt Mom, my reliable foil on matters of art deco and neo-classic culture?
Where is DemoMan, who has surprised us a couple of times?
Oh, c’mon folks: classic musical, floorboard, newspaper – Google the fucking thing.
In today’s Washing Post, is this article by Darryl Fears, Study: Few Blacks Seen on Talk Shows, sure to raise some feathers:
Only 8 percent of the guests on the major Sunday morning talk shows over the past 18 months were African Americans, with three people accounting for the majority of those appearances, according to a new study by the National Urban League.
Black guests — newsmakers, the journalists who questioned them and experts who offered commentary — appeared 176 times out of more than 2,100 opportunities, according to the study, which is scheduled for release today. But 122 of those appearances were made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, and Juan Williams, a journalist and regular panel member on “Fox News Sunday.”
“There’s very clearly a division, an exclusion,” said Stephanie J. Jones, executive director of the Urban League Institute, who initiated the study, “Sunday Morning Apartheid: a Diversity Study of the Sunday Morning Talk Shows.”
[…]
The study analyzed NBC’s “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Fox television’s “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “Late Edition.” It found that more than 60 percent of the programs that aired during the 18-month period had no black guests. “Meet the Press,” the talk show with the largest number of viewers, had no black guests on 86 percent of its broadcasts, the study said.
[…]
Barbara Levin, senior communications director for NBC News, said that “Meet the Press” interviews “the same newsmakers who dominate the front pages and op-ed pages of every newspaper in America, including The Washington Post.”
And who should we find on today’s Meet the Press panel, but WaPo’s own Eugene Robinson.. 🙂