It’s an old joke, of course. But not as old as the stereotyping of the relationship between police, and prosecutors, and what Hammett, Spillane, and in a somewhat milder vein, Gardner, used to portray as the intrepid but slightly disreputable private investigator or criminal defense attorney. Avid crime novel reader though I am, [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
How Do You Stop a Prosecutor From Overcharging?
Posted in Education, Ethics, Law on November 13, 2009 | 9 Comments »
Healthy Food Improves School Performance
Posted in Community, Culture, Education, Health Care, Nation, Public, Science, Steve S., tagged food, school performance on November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Via Yglesias, Tim Harford notes a study showing that eating healthier foods improves the performance of students in primary schools. Key quotes..
What caught the attention of Michele Belot and Jonathan James, though, was the way Oliver’s project had been implemented. Belot and James – economists at Nuffield College, Oxford, and at the University [...]
Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans
Posted in Culture, Education, Franklin Evans, Gods, tagged Beliefnet, Gus diZerega, pagan, religion on November 11, 2009 | 7 Comments »
I commend to all an excellent essay by Gus diZerega, from his blog on Beliefnet: Twelve Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Pagans.
He covers the basics very well. Commentary is welcome here or there.
Bigotry and Low Expectations
Posted in Culture, Education, Ethics, Family, Law, Lifestyle, Sex on November 6, 2009 | 31 Comments »
No, this isn’t about the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” I just did that to catch the eye. There is no heat in my office, my hands are cold, and the only way to keep myself typing is to start with something eye-grabbing. This is actually about the state of Maine (with which [...]
WD40 for K-12
Posted in Education, Scott Lahti, tagged E.D. Hirsch, Mike Rose on November 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Dreams of Better Schools
Andrew Delbanco
With the possible exceptions of the postal service and the motor vehicle bureau, few public institutions rival our schools in public dissatisfaction. But measured against the actual schools of the past, how, in fact, are we doing?
E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy
Sol Stern
The methods of E.D. Hirsch, America’s greatest 20th century [...]
harry potter meets roman polanski
Posted in Culture, Education, Janice, Media, Public on October 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I just reviewed the blog stats on Alexandria, thanks to a post that I really couldn’t figure out without going to the attached links. It was gratifying to note that Alexandria does get quite a few hits, regularly, and that, at one point or another, 70 people actually read something I wrote. I didn’t think [...]
“(Don’t) try my product”
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Education, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Scott Lahti, Technology, tagged John Scherer, Martin Short, Nathan Thurm, Video Professor on October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
John Scherer and Billy Mays are the reasons our TV has so many dents in it. – commenter yazd, FreeRepublic.com
Never buy anything advertised on television. – DSL., Notes to Self, 1962-
After noticing one too many times John “Video Professor” Scherer laugh sheepishly on his ads after saying his name, we found this after searching on him; [...]
Cyrano de Blogerac
Posted in Arts, Culture, Education, Humor, Language, Media, Mind, Scott Lahti, tagged French literature, Madame de Sévigné on October 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696) was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter. Her letters provide much insight into the social mores and customs of 17th-century French life.
From the article on French [...]
A Mighty Windmill
Posted in Education, Mind, Science, Scott Lahti, Technology, World, tagged Malawi, William Kamkwamba, windmills on October 8, 2009 | 2 Comments »
This high-school kid from rural Malawi (book at #11 at Amazon.com) was on The Daily Show last night.
For a soldering iron, he used a stiff piece of wire heated in a fire.
“For an educated adult living in a developed nation, designing and building a wind turbine that generates electricity [...]
Ivory Power
Posted in Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Lifestyle, Media, Mind, Nation, Nature, Politics, Science, Scott Lahti, Technology, World, tagged Miller-McCune, Utne.com, transpartisanship, Michael Ostrolenk on October 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Miller-McCune, a magazine launched in 2008, strives to translate recent academic research into readable articles offering innovative and nonpartisan approaches to challenging issues of the day. If you’ve already discovered the joys of The Wilson Quarterly, you’ll find much here to your taste:
The online magazine Miller-McCune.com harnesses current academic research with real-time reporting to address [...]
“And Such Small Portions…”
Posted in Education, Lifestyle on October 3, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Obama wants to lengthen the school year and the school day. Probably the school week is the next target. Like the educational experts who have been suggesting all this extra time for the last twenty years, he has several different rationales. First, of course, the original school year was set up for an [...]
Do people think? New studies are inconclusive…
Posted in Culture, Education, Franklin Evans, Language, Mind, Nature, Science, Self, World on October 3, 2009 | 9 Comments »
I enjoyed our own Lynn’s post about doggie intelligence (second half of post; first half is a cautionary and timely tale about keeping your medical records current.) We always had a dog while I was growing up, and less so a cat (though cats’ tendency to think of their humans as convenient rest stops might [...]
yes, he did walk on the Moon
Posted in Culture, Education, Science, Sigaliris, tagged buzz aldrin, moon walk on September 30, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Serendipitously, I ran across this video just in time to put it up as an addendum to John E.’s post, below. Of course, I don’t believe in unnecessarily exalting unnecessary violence–and wasted considerable time today arguing about it at that Time Sink From Hell, the Other Place–but my barbarian alter ego is cheering Buzz Aldrin [...]
Be True To Your School’s Detonation
Posted in Education, Family, Scott Lahti, tagged anarchism, death camps, decentralism, do-it-yourself, explosives, Freedom, homeschooling, honesty, horse and buggery, separatism, slavery, traditionalism, truth on September 30, 2009 | 6 Comments »
To see Paul Simon and raise him nine years, when I think back on all the horseshit I learned in Government K-12 Death Camps and Rape-Rooms of the Soul,*
*Ur-shit #1, to which all flies succeeding swarm: Obedience.
it’s a wonder my daily fantasies of setting all of them, from Ketchikan to Keokuk to Key West, to [...]
Survivor Alexandria
Posted in Community, Culture, Education, Humor, Sigaliris, tagged Republicans, survivor on September 28, 2009 | 13 Comments »
A comment by lornakismet on DSL’s “This I Believe” has moved me to propose a new season of Survivor Alexandria, to be held on a desert island of Lorna’s choice. The impetus, here:
I somehow think that if you and Franklin were on a desert island, stranded and alone and hungry, you would miss this Republican [...]
You Give Us 22 Seconds, We’ll Give You The National “Conversation”
Posted in Arts, Culture, Education, Humor, Language, Lifestyle, Media, Mind, Nation, Politics, Scott Lahti, tagged debate, Family Guy on September 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Ain’t that America – whose loudest “debaters”, from baying blogosphere to brayin’-dead cable “news” networks, scions of a proud lineage that would appear across divers branches of its family tree to have, yeah, descended more often than not from redacted rug-swept nocturnal congress with the common domestic jackass (Equus asinus asinus), [...]
The Help Desk I Want To Be (or not to be)
Posted in Arts, Education, Franklin Evans, Humor, Language, Technology, tagged parody, help desk on September 13, 2009 | 3 Comments »
This should need no further introduction other than to suggest that you watch it in full-screen mode. The sub-titles are not as large as they could be for elder eyes.
Things the Bible Would Have Said if the Author Had a Better Quote Book
Posted in Culture, Education, Gods, Language on September 8, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Warning: this is yet another rant from Jane Grey on people who cite the Bible without bothering to read it. If you’re not in the mood, go buy some popcorn.
That Other Blog Over There just attributed “hate the sin but love the sinner” to Jesus. The Other Blogger Over There is usually much [...]
How to learn a foreign language, part 1
Posted in Education, Language, Wordadvocate, tagged French, how to learn a language, language learning, languages, penpals, Spanish, writing letters on September 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I’ll be doing a more comprehensive approach to language learning soon, but I thought I’d share an interesting method I’m using to learn French that, so far, seems effective and – most importantly – fun.
First, take one or two semesters of the target language at a local college or university. You’ll need to learn how [...]
Obama’s Prepared Remarks to America’s Students
Posted in Education, Family, Franklin Evans, Nation, Politics on September 7, 2009 | 9 Comments »
White House Media Resources website with the full text of Obama’s intended remarks to America’s students.
For the purposes of this thread, I request that criticisms of the remarks include direct quotes from the officially posted text. Copy and paste are our friends, just as we require Mr. Tongue and Mr. Lips to form words.
Obama Addresses the Nation’s Children: for the lazy
Posted in Education, Ethics, Family, Franklin Evans, Nation, Politics, tagged satire, conspiracy, idiots don't become smart when they have children, never trust a man who speaks for more than 30 seconds, no need for education just fear everything on September 5, 2009 | 13 Comments »
The brief summary of the kerfuffle over Obama speaking to children while they sit in their classrooms, with teachers prepped with an outline of how to use it as a learning moment:
Obama: “I will ask children to see school as a positive value.”
Fear mongerer of your choice: “Obama is going to proselytize your children into [...]
(Smash) your face or mine?
Posted in Arts, Education, Humor, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, Sport, Woman, tagged British Film Institute, educational films, self-defense on September 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of the best safe-for-work girl-on-girl S/M films, captions not excepted (“the ankle and knee throw, followed by leg torture”), Britain’s silent era ever produced [tip: Boing Boing].*
*See also the earlier post Lady Kick-Astor and the Judo-Christian Rendition
I love how the masher in the pre-amble gets the snot kicked out of him, [...]
I know I said he was but he wasn’t, and Helen Gurley Man
Posted in Arts, Education, Media, Mind, Scott Lahti, tagged Times Literary Supplement, scholarship, letters to the Editor, correspondence on September 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of my favorite forms of armchair travel comes weekly in the form of attending the learned disputations in the Letters columns of London’s TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT., IN WHICH fPORT I ONCE PINCH-HIT A DECADE AGO, IN CORRECTING ONE OF BRITAIN’S STAR LIT PROFESSORS ON THE SOURCES OF STANLEY KUBRICK’S FULL METAL JACKET, THOUGH HAVING [...]
