Friday, November 3, 2017
"I'd Rather Be the First Alma"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/12-year-old-prodigy-could-be-as-gifted-as-mozart/
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
A Gospel Choir Goes to China
http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/features/brooklyn-gospel-choir-goes-china
In Class With Samuel L. Jackson
An excerpt from BlackAmericaWeb -
Samuel L. Jackson To Teach Online Acting Masterclass
By Ny Magee
Actor Samuel L. Jackson is going to teach an online acting class in collaboration with MasterClass.
As reported by Variety, “Jackson will deliver wisdom and pointers culled from playing more than 100 roles over his 45-year film career.” The course will be available for a one-time $90 fee. His class is slated to premiere sometime this winter.
Jackson’s Masterclass joins a lineup of celebrity instructors who have also shared their expertise, including Martin Scorsese, Shonda Rhimes, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey and Steve Martin.
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/11/01/samuel-l-jackson-to-teach-online-acting-masterclass/
Samuel L. Jackson To Teach Online Acting Masterclass
By Ny Magee
Actor Samuel L. Jackson is going to teach an online acting class in collaboration with MasterClass.
As reported by Variety, “Jackson will deliver wisdom and pointers culled from playing more than 100 roles over his 45-year film career.” The course will be available for a one-time $90 fee. His class is slated to premiere sometime this winter.
Jackson’s Masterclass joins a lineup of celebrity instructors who have also shared their expertise, including Martin Scorsese, Shonda Rhimes, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey and Steve Martin.
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/11/01/samuel-l-jackson-to-teach-online-acting-masterclass/
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Call on God" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/watch-sharon-jones-dap-kings-intimate-call-on-god-video-w510770
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Monday, October 30, 2017
Controlling Black Athletes
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Bob McNair, other NFL owners demonstrate their true intent: Controlling black athletes
By Kevin B. Blackistone
Control of black athletic talent in this country was then, before and now — as Houston Texans owner Bob McNair reminded not once but twice over the past few days — of paramount concern to ownership and management. There was, for example, the concerted effort of white lawmakers to wrest the heavyweight championship of the world over a century ago from boxer Jack Johnson, the first black man to hold it, to restore the fallacy of white superiority. There was reduction of college athletic scholarships from four-year contracts to single-year agreements at the start of the 1970s, which just so happened to coincide with teams ramping up through integration, reducing the power of new stars, primarily of color, from managing their destinies. There was the NBA under commissioner David Stern in 2005 managing to impose a dress code on the predominantly black league to rebut an increasingly urban image that Stern was worried might have made it less marketable to advertisers and white fans.
And there is the NFL’s response to free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick and those players who have dared use the national anthem as a stage to protest grievances against police lethality vs. black men or the dog-whistle (if not foghorn) firebrand of this country’s latest president.
What the upper echelon of the NFL began reacting to earlier this year, with its conspiratorial defrocking of Kaepernick, wasn’t about the anthem, per se. It wasn’t about the massive flags it so often unfurls before games. It wasn’t about the military it recognizes at almost every game with a presentation of the colors or an expensive flyover of armed forces weaponry.
It was about, as McNair allowed his subconscious to let slip, corralling the players and returning them to their place.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/nfl-bob-mcnair-demonstrate-their-true-intent-controlling-black-athletes/2017/10/29/437685d4-bcd2-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html?utm_term=.d247ebd2aeb9
Bob McNair, other NFL owners demonstrate their true intent: Controlling black athletes
By Kevin B. Blackistone
Control of black athletic talent in this country was then, before and now — as Houston Texans owner Bob McNair reminded not once but twice over the past few days — of paramount concern to ownership and management. There was, for example, the concerted effort of white lawmakers to wrest the heavyweight championship of the world over a century ago from boxer Jack Johnson, the first black man to hold it, to restore the fallacy of white superiority. There was reduction of college athletic scholarships from four-year contracts to single-year agreements at the start of the 1970s, which just so happened to coincide with teams ramping up through integration, reducing the power of new stars, primarily of color, from managing their destinies. There was the NBA under commissioner David Stern in 2005 managing to impose a dress code on the predominantly black league to rebut an increasingly urban image that Stern was worried might have made it less marketable to advertisers and white fans.
And there is the NFL’s response to free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick and those players who have dared use the national anthem as a stage to protest grievances against police lethality vs. black men or the dog-whistle (if not foghorn) firebrand of this country’s latest president.
What the upper echelon of the NFL began reacting to earlier this year, with its conspiratorial defrocking of Kaepernick, wasn’t about the anthem, per se. It wasn’t about the massive flags it so often unfurls before games. It wasn’t about the military it recognizes at almost every game with a presentation of the colors or an expensive flyover of armed forces weaponry.
It was about, as McNair allowed his subconscious to let slip, corralling the players and returning them to their place.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/nfl-bob-mcnair-demonstrate-their-true-intent-controlling-black-athletes/2017/10/29/437685d4-bcd2-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html?utm_term=.d247ebd2aeb9
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Lessons From a Toni Morrison Short Story
From the New Yorker -
The Work You Do, the Person You Are
The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed.
By Toni Morrison
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/the-work-you-do-the-person-you-are
The Work You Do, the Person You Are
The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed.
By Toni Morrison
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/the-work-you-do-the-person-you-are
Pretty Proud
Years ago, 36 to be exact, I started a needlepoint project when I was pregnant with my oldest son, Ben. I completed about half of it before he was born, but was way too busy to deal with it after his birth, so I put it in a box and forgot about it.
When I moved recently, I discovered this long-lost project and decided to finish it. I was so proud of the end result, I had it framed and it's now hanging prominently in my new home. Here it is below.
A little background.
My degree is in pharmacy and I was working as a pharmacist when I started this.
You don't have to look too hard to see that it's not perfect, but that's OK. It's finished. It's done. It's complete.
And for that, I'm most proud.
When I moved recently, I discovered this long-lost project and decided to finish it. I was so proud of the end result, I had it framed and it's now hanging prominently in my new home. Here it is below.
A little background.
My degree is in pharmacy and I was working as a pharmacist when I started this.
You don't have to look too hard to see that it's not perfect, but that's OK. It's finished. It's done. It's complete.
And for that, I'm most proud.
Tombstones
From Stumbleupon -
50+ Brilliant Tombstones By People Whose Sense Of Humor Will Live Forever
By Šarūnė Mac
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/55Ff0Y/:12T1w86Dl:ns$+w71./www.boredpanda.com/funny-tombstones-epitaphs
50+ Brilliant Tombstones By People Whose Sense Of Humor Will Live Forever
By Šarūnė Mac
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/55Ff0Y/:12T1w86Dl:ns$+w71./www.boredpanda.com/funny-tombstones-epitaphs
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Quote
“The Democratic party is too male,” said Letitia James, public advocate for the City of New York and the first woman of color to hold citywide office in the city. “It’s too pale and too stale.”
(Bold is mine)
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/at-the-womens-convention-a-clear-message-follow-black-women-in-2018_us_59f4939ce4b03cd20b81e45f?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
(Bold is mine)
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/at-the-womens-convention-a-clear-message-follow-black-women-in-2018_us_59f4939ce4b03cd20b81e45f?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Solve Tough Data Problems. Get Flooded With Job Offers.
An excerpt from Wired -
SOLVE THESE TOUGH DATA PROBLEMS AND WATCH JOB OFFERS ROLL IN
By Tom Simonite
LATE IN 2015, Gilberto Titericz, an electrical engineer at Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, told his boss he planned to resign, after seven years maintaining sensors and other hardware in oil plants. By devoting hundreds of hours of leisure time to the obscure world of competitive data analysis, Titericz had recently become the world’s top-ranked data scientist, by one reckoning. Silicon Valley was calling. “Only when I wanted to quit did they realize they had the number-one data scientist,” he says.
Petrobras held on to its champ for a time by moving Titericz into a position that used his data skills. But since topping the rankings that October he’d received a stream of emails from recruiters around the globe, including representatives of Tesla and Google. This past February, another well-known tech company hired him, and moved his family to the Bay Area this summer. Titericz described his unlikely journey recently over colorful plates of Nigerian food at the headquarters of his new employer, Airbnb.
Titericz earned, and holds, his number-one rank on a website called Kaggle that has turned data analysis into a kind of sport, and transformed the lives of some competitors. Companies, government agencies, and researchers post datasets on the platform and invite Kaggle’s more than one million members to discern patterns and solve problems. Winners get glory, points toward Kaggle’s rankings of its top 66,000 data scientists, and sometimes cash prizes.
https://www.wired.com/story/solve-these-tough-data-problems-and-watch-job-offers-roll-in/?mbid=nl_102817_daily_list1_p1
SOLVE THESE TOUGH DATA PROBLEMS AND WATCH JOB OFFERS ROLL IN
By Tom Simonite
LATE IN 2015, Gilberto Titericz, an electrical engineer at Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, told his boss he planned to resign, after seven years maintaining sensors and other hardware in oil plants. By devoting hundreds of hours of leisure time to the obscure world of competitive data analysis, Titericz had recently become the world’s top-ranked data scientist, by one reckoning. Silicon Valley was calling. “Only when I wanted to quit did they realize they had the number-one data scientist,” he says.
Petrobras held on to its champ for a time by moving Titericz into a position that used his data skills. But since topping the rankings that October he’d received a stream of emails from recruiters around the globe, including representatives of Tesla and Google. This past February, another well-known tech company hired him, and moved his family to the Bay Area this summer. Titericz described his unlikely journey recently over colorful plates of Nigerian food at the headquarters of his new employer, Airbnb.
Titericz earned, and holds, his number-one rank on a website called Kaggle that has turned data analysis into a kind of sport, and transformed the lives of some competitors. Companies, government agencies, and researchers post datasets on the platform and invite Kaggle’s more than one million members to discern patterns and solve problems. Winners get glory, points toward Kaggle’s rankings of its top 66,000 data scientists, and sometimes cash prizes.
https://www.wired.com/story/solve-these-tough-data-problems-and-watch-job-offers-roll-in/?mbid=nl_102817_daily_list1_p1
Adding Insult to Injury
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2017/10/27/nfl-owners-texans-bob-mcnair-need-sensitivity-training-race/807958001/
Autism Breakthrough?
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
UC Davis researchers test drug that may reverse symptoms of autism
By Molly Sullivan
Researchers at UC Davis MIND Institute may have found a drug that can reverse symptoms of a rare genetic condition associated with autism.
The 16p11.2 deletion syndrome – caused by the deletion of a small piece of chromosome 16 – is present in one-third of people with autism. People who have this condition are missing certain genes, resulting in impaired communication and social skills and delayed intellectual development, said Jacqueline Crawley, the lead researcher in the study.
The drug that may help is called R-baclofen. It interacts with a specific kind of neurotransmitter to inhibit neurons from firing, she said.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article181379671.html#emlnl=Breaking_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
UC Davis researchers test drug that may reverse symptoms of autism
By Molly Sullivan
Researchers at UC Davis MIND Institute may have found a drug that can reverse symptoms of a rare genetic condition associated with autism.
The 16p11.2 deletion syndrome – caused by the deletion of a small piece of chromosome 16 – is present in one-third of people with autism. People who have this condition are missing certain genes, resulting in impaired communication and social skills and delayed intellectual development, said Jacqueline Crawley, the lead researcher in the study.
The drug that may help is called R-baclofen. It interacts with a specific kind of neurotransmitter to inhibit neurons from firing, she said.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article181379671.html#emlnl=Breaking_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
How to Be a CEO
An excerpt from the New York Times -
How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade’s Worth of Them
Adam Bryant has interviewed 525 chief executives through his
years writing the Corner Office column. Here’s what he has learned.
By ADAM BRYANT
It started with a simple idea: What if I sat down with chief executives, and never asked them about their companies?
The notion occurred to me roughly a decade ago, after spending years as a reporter and interviewing C.E.O.s about many of the expected things: their growth plans, the competition, the economic forces driving their industries. But the more time I spent doing this, the more I found myself wanting to ask instead about more expansive themes — not about pivoting, scaling or moving to the cloud, but how they lead their employees, how they hire, and the life advice they give or wish they had received.
That led to 525 Corner Office columns, and weekly reminders that questions like these can lead to unexpected places.
I met an executive who grew up in a dirt-floor home, and another who escaped the drugs and gangs of her dangerous neighborhood. I learned about different approaches to building culture, from doing away with titles to offering twice-a-month housecleaning to all employees as a retention tool.
And I have been endlessly surprised by the creative approaches that chief executives take to interviewing people for jobs, including tossing their car keys to a job candidate to drive them to a lunch spot, or asking them how weird they are, on a scale of 1 to 10.
Granted, not all chief executives are fonts of wisdom. And some of them, as headlines regularly remind us, are deeply challenged people.
That said, there’s no arguing that C.E.O.s have a rare vantage point for spotting patterns about management, leadership and human behavior.
After almost a decade of writing the Corner Office column, this will be my final one — and from all the interviews, and the five million words of transcripts from those conversations, I have learned valuable leadership lessons and heard some great stories. Here are some standouts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/business/how-to-be-a-ceo.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade’s Worth of Them
Adam Bryant has interviewed 525 chief executives through his
years writing the Corner Office column. Here’s what he has learned.
By ADAM BRYANT
It started with a simple idea: What if I sat down with chief executives, and never asked them about their companies?
The notion occurred to me roughly a decade ago, after spending years as a reporter and interviewing C.E.O.s about many of the expected things: their growth plans, the competition, the economic forces driving their industries. But the more time I spent doing this, the more I found myself wanting to ask instead about more expansive themes — not about pivoting, scaling or moving to the cloud, but how they lead their employees, how they hire, and the life advice they give or wish they had received.
That led to 525 Corner Office columns, and weekly reminders that questions like these can lead to unexpected places.
I met an executive who grew up in a dirt-floor home, and another who escaped the drugs and gangs of her dangerous neighborhood. I learned about different approaches to building culture, from doing away with titles to offering twice-a-month housecleaning to all employees as a retention tool.
And I have been endlessly surprised by the creative approaches that chief executives take to interviewing people for jobs, including tossing their car keys to a job candidate to drive them to a lunch spot, or asking them how weird they are, on a scale of 1 to 10.
Granted, not all chief executives are fonts of wisdom. And some of them, as headlines regularly remind us, are deeply challenged people.
That said, there’s no arguing that C.E.O.s have a rare vantage point for spotting patterns about management, leadership and human behavior.
After almost a decade of writing the Corner Office column, this will be my final one — and from all the interviews, and the five million words of transcripts from those conversations, I have learned valuable leadership lessons and heard some great stories. Here are some standouts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/business/how-to-be-a-ceo.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
Friday, October 27, 2017
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Brown Corn Pop
hey @KelloggsUS why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? this is teaching kids racism. pic.twitter.com/Nh7M7IFawW— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) October 24, 2017
Powerful Videos
From the New Yorker -
We Are Witnesses
A portrait of crime and punishment in America today.
In partnership with The Marshall Project
The impact of America’s punishment policies is often measured in numbers: there are now 2.2 million people in our jails and prisons; one in a hundred and fifteen adults is confined behind bars; our inmate population is four times larger than it was in 1980. “We Are Witnesses,” a collection of short videos, offers a very different sort of calculation: the human cost of locking up so many citizens for so many years. The project comprises nineteen videos, each between two and six minutes long. Taken together, they present a rare 360-degree portrait of the state of crime and punishment in the United States.
“We Are Witnesses” eschews politicians and professors in favor of other kinds of experts: people who have had firsthand experience with the criminal-justice system. Two police officers, a prison guard, two judges, two parents of a murder victim, four ex-prisoners—each one stares straight at the camera, recounting his or her story. Created and produced by the Marshall Project, a newsroom covering the criminal-justice system, “We Are Witnesses” delivers first-person testimonials that are intimate, honest, and revelatory.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/we-are-witnesses-portrait-of-crime-and-punishment-in-america-today#video
We Are Witnesses
A portrait of crime and punishment in America today.
In partnership with The Marshall Project
The impact of America’s punishment policies is often measured in numbers: there are now 2.2 million people in our jails and prisons; one in a hundred and fifteen adults is confined behind bars; our inmate population is four times larger than it was in 1980. “We Are Witnesses,” a collection of short videos, offers a very different sort of calculation: the human cost of locking up so many citizens for so many years. The project comprises nineteen videos, each between two and six minutes long. Taken together, they present a rare 360-degree portrait of the state of crime and punishment in the United States.
“We Are Witnesses” eschews politicians and professors in favor of other kinds of experts: people who have had firsthand experience with the criminal-justice system. Two police officers, a prison guard, two judges, two parents of a murder victim, four ex-prisoners—each one stares straight at the camera, recounting his or her story. Created and produced by the Marshall Project, a newsroom covering the criminal-justice system, “We Are Witnesses” delivers first-person testimonials that are intimate, honest, and revelatory.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/we-are-witnesses-portrait-of-crime-and-punishment-in-america-today#video
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Monday, October 23, 2017
High Tech Boot Camp
An excerpt from Axios -
In a bet against college, WeWork acquires a coding bootcamp
By Steve LeVine
WeWork, the office leasing giant, has acquired the New York-based Flatiron School, a private coding academy, in a gamble on 15-week, $15,000 vocational education as opposed to far more expensive four-year college degrees. The companies did not disclose the precise value of the cash-and-stock deal. At $20 billion, WeWork is tied for the sixth most-valuable startup in the world.
Why it matters: At a time many experts and politicians are questioning the assumption that college is for everyone, the deal bets on a fashionable form of vocational education — coding — as a route to well-paying software jobs. The plans are to expand Flatiron from its single location in New York's financial district into most of WeWork's approximately 170 offices, which would further test the growing idea of bypassing college, at least in the U.S. tech world.
https://www.axios.com/in-a-bet-against-college-wework-acquires-a-coding-bootcamp-2500013575.html
In a bet against college, WeWork acquires a coding bootcamp
By Steve LeVine
WeWork, the office leasing giant, has acquired the New York-based Flatiron School, a private coding academy, in a gamble on 15-week, $15,000 vocational education as opposed to far more expensive four-year college degrees. The companies did not disclose the precise value of the cash-and-stock deal. At $20 billion, WeWork is tied for the sixth most-valuable startup in the world.
Why it matters: At a time many experts and politicians are questioning the assumption that college is for everyone, the deal bets on a fashionable form of vocational education — coding — as a route to well-paying software jobs. The plans are to expand Flatiron from its single location in New York's financial district into most of WeWork's approximately 170 offices, which would further test the growing idea of bypassing college, at least in the U.S. tech world.
https://www.axios.com/in-a-bet-against-college-wework-acquires-a-coding-bootcamp-2500013575.html
McCain Indirectly Slams Draft Dodging Trump
TONIGHT - @SenJohnMcCain talks about the Vietnam War's legacy on C-SPAN, at 6 & 10pm ET. pic.twitter.com/WnZT0n8Mcn— American History TV (@cspanhistory) October 22, 2017
Why Difficult Discourse Matters
An excerpt from the NY Times -
America’s Best University President
By Bret Stephens
Several years ago Robert Zimmer was asked by an audience in China why the University of Chicago was associated with so many winners of the Nobel Prize — 90 in all, counting this month’s win by the behavioral economist Richard Thaler. Zimmer, the university’s president since 2006, answered that the key was a campus culture committed to “discourse, argument and lack of deference.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Our commitment to academic freedom,” he wrote, “means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/opinion/robert-zimmer-chicago-speech.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
America’s Best University President
By Bret Stephens
Several years ago Robert Zimmer was asked by an audience in China why the University of Chicago was associated with so many winners of the Nobel Prize — 90 in all, counting this month’s win by the behavioral economist Richard Thaler. Zimmer, the university’s president since 2006, answered that the key was a campus culture committed to “discourse, argument and lack of deference.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Our commitment to academic freedom,” he wrote, “means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/opinion/robert-zimmer-chicago-speech.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Class move by Spurs. They and Wolves stood at full attention for National Anthem, but both teams locked arms after as this message played. pic.twitter.com/5pN36ns2nV— Raul Dominguez Jr. (@Abrjsdad) October 19, 2017
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Friday, October 20, 2017
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Another Life For Grouchy Cats
An excerpt from the AP News -
For ornery shelter cats, 2nd chance is a job chasing mice
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gary wasn’t used to being around people. He didn’t like being touched or even looked at. If anyone came too close, he’d lash out.
He was perfect for the job. Because at the Working Cats program, no manners is no problem.
Philadelphia’s Animal Care and Control Team established the program about four years ago to place unadoptable cats — the biters and the skittish, the swatters and the ones that won’t use a litter box — into jobs as mousers at barns or stables.
https://apnews.com/ddaf915aaf19413ebc122be3afe20c2f
For ornery shelter cats, 2nd chance is a job chasing mice
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gary wasn’t used to being around people. He didn’t like being touched or even looked at. If anyone came too close, he’d lash out.
He was perfect for the job. Because at the Working Cats program, no manners is no problem.
Philadelphia’s Animal Care and Control Team established the program about four years ago to place unadoptable cats — the biters and the skittish, the swatters and the ones that won’t use a litter box — into jobs as mousers at barns or stables.
https://apnews.com/ddaf915aaf19413ebc122be3afe20c2f
Take Note Parents
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
Why Parents Make Flawed Choices About Their Kids' Schooling
A new study shows that families act on insufficient information when it comes to figuring out where to enroll their children.
By GAIL CORNWALL
A person trying to choose their next set of wheels might see that car A made it farther than car B in a road test and assume it gets better gas mileage. But that’s only true if the two tanks are filled with the same substance. Putting high-octane gas in one and water in the other, for example, provides little useful information about which car makes the most of its fuel. A new working paper titled “Do Parents Value School Effectiveness?” suggests that parents similarly opt for schools with the most impressive graduates rather than figuring out which ones actually teach best. The study joins a body of research looking critically at what it means for a school to be successful.
Take the work of Erin Pahlke, for example. The assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College saw research showing that girls who attend school only with other girls tend to do better in math and science. The trick, she said, is that those studies didn’t analyze “differences in the students coming into the schools.” As it turns out, those who end up in same-sex schools tend to be wealthier, start out with more skills, and have parents who are more proactive than students who attend co-ed institutions. In a 2014 meta-analysis, Pahlke and her colleagues reviewed the studies and found when examining schools with the same type of students and same level of resources—rather than “comparing [those at] the public co-ed school to [their counterparts at] the fancy private school that’s single-sex down the road”—there isn’t any difference in how the students perform academically. Single-sex schooling also hasn’t been shown to offer a bump in girls’ attitudes toward math and science or change how they think about themselves. In other words, it often looks like single-sex schools are doing a better job educating kids, but they aren't. It's just that their graduates are people who were going to do well at any school. They’re running on high-octane gas.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/10/can-parents-really-pick-the-best-schools-for-their-kids/543201/
Why Parents Make Flawed Choices About Their Kids' Schooling
A new study shows that families act on insufficient information when it comes to figuring out where to enroll their children.
By GAIL CORNWALL
A person trying to choose their next set of wheels might see that car A made it farther than car B in a road test and assume it gets better gas mileage. But that’s only true if the two tanks are filled with the same substance. Putting high-octane gas in one and water in the other, for example, provides little useful information about which car makes the most of its fuel. A new working paper titled “Do Parents Value School Effectiveness?” suggests that parents similarly opt for schools with the most impressive graduates rather than figuring out which ones actually teach best. The study joins a body of research looking critically at what it means for a school to be successful.
Take the work of Erin Pahlke, for example. The assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College saw research showing that girls who attend school only with other girls tend to do better in math and science. The trick, she said, is that those studies didn’t analyze “differences in the students coming into the schools.” As it turns out, those who end up in same-sex schools tend to be wealthier, start out with more skills, and have parents who are more proactive than students who attend co-ed institutions. In a 2014 meta-analysis, Pahlke and her colleagues reviewed the studies and found when examining schools with the same type of students and same level of resources—rather than “comparing [those at] the public co-ed school to [their counterparts at] the fancy private school that’s single-sex down the road”—there isn’t any difference in how the students perform academically. Single-sex schooling also hasn’t been shown to offer a bump in girls’ attitudes toward math and science or change how they think about themselves. In other words, it often looks like single-sex schools are doing a better job educating kids, but they aren't. It's just that their graduates are people who were going to do well at any school. They’re running on high-octane gas.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/10/can-parents-really-pick-the-best-schools-for-their-kids/543201/
Pole Dancing in the Olympics
From the Washington Post -
Pole-dancing in the Olympics? International sports federation recognition helps pave the way.
By Marissa Payne
No strip club necessary. Pole-dancing now stands on its own as a provisionally recognized sport thanks to the Global Association of International Sports Federation, which granted the activity’s international governing federation “observer status” earlier this month.
“Pole Sports is a performance sport combining dance and acrobatics on a vertical pole,” GAISF writes on its website. “Pole Sports requires great physical and mental exertion, strength and endurance are required to lift, hold and spin the body. A high degree of flexibility is needed to contort, pose, demonstrate lines and execute techniques.”
Observer status is the first step international federations must achieve before becoming full GAISF members, which serves as a great boost for any sport hoping to one day land in the Olympics. And that is exactly pole-dancing’s goal, according to International Pole Sports Federation President Katie Coates, who lauded the day the decision was made on Oct. 2 as “historical.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/18/pole-dancing-in-the-olympics-international-sports-federation-recognition-helps-pave-the-way/?utm_term=.05ed0cf96c12&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Pole-dancing in the Olympics? International sports federation recognition helps pave the way.
By Marissa Payne
No strip club necessary. Pole-dancing now stands on its own as a provisionally recognized sport thanks to the Global Association of International Sports Federation, which granted the activity’s international governing federation “observer status” earlier this month.
“Pole Sports is a performance sport combining dance and acrobatics on a vertical pole,” GAISF writes on its website. “Pole Sports requires great physical and mental exertion, strength and endurance are required to lift, hold and spin the body. A high degree of flexibility is needed to contort, pose, demonstrate lines and execute techniques.”
Observer status is the first step international federations must achieve before becoming full GAISF members, which serves as a great boost for any sport hoping to one day land in the Olympics. And that is exactly pole-dancing’s goal, according to International Pole Sports Federation President Katie Coates, who lauded the day the decision was made on Oct. 2 as “historical.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/18/pole-dancing-in-the-olympics-international-sports-federation-recognition-helps-pave-the-way/?utm_term=.05ed0cf96c12&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Bill - 0 Jake - 1
Sean Hannity kicking serious butt in the ratings. Tapper on CNN as low as you can go.— Bill O'Reilly (@billoreilly) October 18, 2017
"Low" would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it -- humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low. https://t.co/e2d6kOHL7F— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Chicago
Tonight at 11/10c, we begin our week in Chicago by looking at its reputation as the "most dangerous city in America." #DailyShowChicago pic.twitter.com/6EwV3uOiFE— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 17, 2017
Latin Ladies
From Buzzfeed -
A Bunch Of Badass Latinas In Hollywood Got Together And It Warmed My Cold, Dead Heart
Icons supporting icons!
By Pablo Valdivia
https://www.buzzfeed.com/pablovaldivia/icons-helping-icons?utm_term=.xnMw8bEY9#.lkWeO0wy5
A Bunch Of Badass Latinas In Hollywood Got Together And It Warmed My Cold, Dead Heart
Icons supporting icons!
By Pablo Valdivia
https://www.buzzfeed.com/pablovaldivia/icons-helping-icons?utm_term=.xnMw8bEY9#.lkWeO0wy5
Monday, October 16, 2017
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)