Packed up and Moved

Unfortunately, poor chuckling has entered the witness protection program, or something like that, and will forthwith be writing under an assumed name. Though still a fictional character writing for a fictional magazine...

An unearthly place (the words that maketh murder)

New Polly Jean Harvey.

Capitalism at its best

Can't help noticing that the Huffington Post, a mostly written publication which proudly does not pay its writers, has sold for $315 million. I don't know if there's a list of most ridiculous ways in which content producers have been swindled, but this has gotta be up there?

It's not all hopeless

I just came across my kid's school newspaper. Here are the front page headlines:

Faculty Disagree on What makes a "Grade" (note: the school doesn't give grades but many faculty members always try to get around that policy. Administration notes that system has been around for a long time and works quite well)

Students Demand more Humanities Classes (Students upset that they are allowed to take two or three language, art, science or math classes but can only take one English or History Class at a time. Administration notes that system has been around for a long time and works quite well.)

Teachers Debate Use of Films in Class (Not much of a debate. Everyone agrees it's a sign of laziness and doesn't teach much. (Administration notes that policy of focusing on primary sources has been around a long time and works quite well).

Teacher Evaluations Considered (Everyone agrees it could be a good thing. Administration notes that current system has been around a long time and works quite well).

Some pretty good inside stories as well:

Nabokov, Salinger Consistently Stolen from Library

Science Students Seek Outside Forums for Sharing Research

WikiLeaks: Harmful or Helpful?

Room for Discussion: Debate on idea of an all-elective high school with no graduation requirements

Brooklyn Museum Hightlights Rockwell's Use of Photographs

Islamophobia on the Rise in the United States

City Reacts to Bloomberg's Controversial Education Appointment

Defining "Hipsters": A Window into Modern Society

I think all this provides a few pointers on excellent possibilities for education reform. Unfortunately, when given the choice between actually making education good or cutting everything but test prep and advanced test prep, most morons in charge choose all test prep all the time.

There by the assholery of god...

Sadly, I can relate all too well to much, too much, of this article in the Guardian UK about writers who have attempted to quit drinking for the month of January. For example:

During the day it's not so bad – except that there's nothing to look forward to, of course. But the evenings I'm finding hard. They go on and on and on. Who knew that evenings were quite such enormous, terrifying voids that need to be filled somehow?

Yes, I know exactly how he feels having let an alcohol in the evening habit grow imperceptibly over the course of many years. Interesting though, how these Brits admit it, even wallow in it, whereas we Americans prefer denial and/or self-flagellation.

Move along, nothing to see here

I've been watching the news coverage about the Tucson shooting for a couple hours now without hearing even one mention of the fact that Sarah Palin literally put her in the crosshairs. In fact, the news weenies are falling all over themselves emphasizing how outraged the Republicans and Tea Party idiots are about the shooting. By this afternoon "some people" will be speculating that it was all a plot by Obama and many others will openly pray for his death. More responsible Republicans will use the incident to gut any and all gun control legislation and call for tax cuts for the wealthy in order to curtail incidents like this in the future.

Say what?

The New York Times tells us of a series of experiments that suggests ESP may be for real, and the accompanying outcry that such nonsense would be published by a respected academic journal. Well, I lack the ESP to know whether or not ESP exists, but I was struck by this common sense "proof" presented by one of the skeptics:

"...these experts say; if ESP exists, why aren’t people getting rich by reliably predicting the movement of the stock market or the outcome of football games?"

Hmmm, so nobody is getting rich by reliably predicting the stock market? Not the best example, anti-esp folk.