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/
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