Just a Rapidly Fading Memory

Summer vacation? What you talkin' about? When was that?

It's amazing how you just fall right back into rhythm, like you were never away. Just the faces and the names change, and not even some of those.

Seventh grade homeroom!!! Those combination locks, oh, WOW! I miss my seniors. :*(

If we claim to have spent tens of thousands of dollars on air conditioning, you couldn't prove it in my room. But, some people were saying they were too cold. I don't know!

Kids were mostly OK. One new kid tried to push my buttons, but I didn't let him get to me, and in the end he was alright. Speaking of new kids, I was getting scared to open GradeQuick. Every time I did, I had a new kid in some class.

We bought 20 new geometry books and I ran out. Oh, well, 1 down, 179 to go.

NC School Shooting

(CNN) -- A student was shot in the shoulder after a suspect fired eight shots toward a Hillsborough, North Carolina, high school, police told a local television station.

According to WTVD-TV, Orange County deputies have the suspect in custody.

The male suspect drove to Orange High School about 1 p.m. ET and didn't stop for school security, WTVD reported. He got out of his vehicle and fired the shots, striking the female student in the shoulder.

Another male student was injured by broken glass, the television station reported.

Another television station, News 14, said two guns were lying on the ground outside a gray minivan in the parking lot. One appeared to be a shotgun, the other a rifle, the station reported.

Orange High School and nearby Stanford Middle School are both on lockdown, and parents were not being allowed at the schools, according to WTVD.

Hillsborough is located about 45 miles northwest of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Orange High has 1,009 students in grades nine through 12, the school Web site states.

POSTED: 4:35 p.m. EDT, August 30, 2006 CNN

Free Books

Official Google Blog: Download the classics: "Starting today, you can go to Google Book Search and download full copies of out-of-copyright books to read at your own pace. You're free to choose from a diverse collection of public domain titles -- from well-known classics to obscure gems.

Before the rise of the public library - a story chronicled in this 1897 edition of The Free Library - access to large collections of books was the privilege of a wealthy minority. Now, with the help of our wonderful library partners, we're able to offer you the ability to download and read PDF versions of out-of-copyright books from some of the world's greatest collections."

More

8/30/2006 09:38:00 AM Posted by Adam Mathes, Associate Product Manager, Google Book Search

Back to School / 7 Trends ... (Pgh Post-Gazette)

When he thinks about the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Jim Testerman of the Pennsylvania State Education Association is reminded of a statement attributed to Albert Einstein.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

Back to School / 7 Trends to Watch: No Child Left Behind has altered the face of education

Second of a series, Monday, August 28, 2006

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Supporters of the practice of high-stakes testing believe that the quality of American education can be vastly improved by introducing a system of rewards and sanctions for students' academic performance," researchers at Arizona State University's Education Policy Studies Laboratory said in a September 2005 report condemning the practice.

NCLB keeps score with the designation known as "adequate yearly progress" or "AYP."

While NCLB has focused all states on reading and math, the law hasn't standardized testing across the states. As a result, making AYP can be a tougher goal in one state than another.

"In Pennsylvania, the bar has been set very high for what it means to be proficient," Mr. Testerman said.

Others have suggested that the country move to a longitudinal analysis of test scores; that is, measure the proficiency of a class from one year to the next and drop the traditional approach of comparing one year's third-grade scores against third-grade scores of the preceding year. Proponents say the change would yield a better picture of whether more students are becoming proficient.

It's an Epidemic

Altoona Mirror - Making It Happen For You: "A tax collector for Manns Choice Borough misappropriated $127,806 from her tax collector's accounts to feed her gambling addiction, police said."

“The money was used to fuel her gambling problem,” court documents state.

Seen the previous post from CNN.

Do the Math!

CNN.com - Woman admits stealing $2.3M to play lottery - Aug 23, 2006: "A former bookkeeper for a doctor's office pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $2.3 million from her employer to buy lottery tickets."

"She obviously had a gambling problem," said Donna Planty, assistant district attorney. Ya Think??!!

BACK-2-SCHOOL

NO! NOT YET! NOT NOW!

You Can Fool Some of the People ...

In the last two weeks, I've noticed a new advertising tack from SUV/Pickup advertisers. They now feature the total distance you can travel on a tank of gas. So! If I put a big enough fuel tank in my gas-guzzler, I can travel any distance I want.

Wow! Look at our SUV. Five hundred miles on one full tank.

If my Super Hammer Trak averages a mere 10 mpg, but I put in a 50 gallon tank, I can travel 500 miles on that full tank. On the other hand, if my two-door Speck is averaging a respectable 25 mpg with a 20 gallon tank, I can still travel 500 miles on a tankful.

They must think we're incredibly simple-minded. Oh, yeah. They're mostly right!

Part 2

I'm terribly annoyed by the tendency of health care types to name every medical ailment acronymically, ADD, CPOD, RLS, AMI, PDL, TBI, and on and on. I thought a PDA was something to keep your calendar and contacts handy. Guess not. PDA is Posterior Descending Artery.

I think it's another aspect of MPM (medieval priest mentality), we have to speak in code so the morons don't catch on.

World Trade Center

This afternoon I saw the Oliver Stone film, World Trade Center. It's a powerful film about two Port Authority police officers trapped in the rubble of the collapsed towers of the World Trade Center. Based on true events, the officers, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno (played by Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena), are two of only twenty people rescued from the WTC on 9/11/2001. According to a story I read in Newsweek, the film very accurately depicts the struggle of these two men to stay alive when it seemed their rescue was impossible. "Jimeno called the film 95 percent accurate." I am not a big fan of seeing movies in theaters, but it was worth seeing this one. The sound of the film is integral and could not be appreciated as well in another venue.

Perception of Numbers

I heard a radio commercial for some organization selling chances on a flash motorcycle for $25 each. They claimed that only 3500 tickets would be sold, so the chances of winning should be relatively good. One chance in 3500 doesn't seem too bad.

I got to thinking about how people perceive numerical relationships in the light of what they would like the numbers to mean.

Imagine you had 3500 pistols arranged on the floor. One and only one of these weapons is loaded and has a round in the chamber. You can select any one gun, put the barrel to your head and squeeeze the trigger. If you're still alive after this you get, a million dollars. This time the one chance in 3500 that you blow your brains out appears quite remote.

In the motorcycle raffle, you have a 3499/3500 (99.97%) likelihood of losing. In the loaded pistol lottery, you have a 1/3500 (0.03%) likelihood of losing. But, most people see both situations as providing a fair possibility of a favorable outcome.

Parlez Vous Francais?

I was sitting in my car a couple days ago waiting for someone and I just happened to take a good look at the air bag warning label that is on each sun visor.

I couldn't help but notice, being the keen observer that I am, how many more words are required to express the warning in French than are needed in English. I wonder if this is usually so in most French-English translations.

And you gotta love the French for "air bags", "coussins gonflables".

What Were They Thinking?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Wed, 8/16/06
By Peter Leo, The Morning File

How the Web has changed the world: Worst-named Web sites

List making the rounds in cyberspace. They're real. Check 'em out:

1. You go to a site called 'Who Represents' to find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name... wait for it... is: www.whorepresents.com.

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange views: www.expertsexchange.com.

3. Looking for a pen? Look no farther than Pen Island at: www.penisland.net.

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at: www.therapistfinder.com.

5. Then there's the Italian Power Generator company: www.powergenitalia.com.

6. If you're looking for computer software, there's www.ipanywhere.com.

7. For really fast art designers, try www.speedofart.com.

8. Want to holiday at Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure Web site at: www.gotahoe.com.

Jihad Indoctrination

CNN.com - Face to face with a smiling abductor - Aug 15, 2006:
"Then one of them said in Arabic, 'What are you? What are you?'

A tiny voice next to me replied, 'I'm a Mujahid,' a holy warrior.

It was a boy -- I'd learn that his name was Ismael, and he was 5 years old. Just a child, already indoctrinated."

More

See my earlier video posting about the war on terror.

Move on, Mr. Ford

I watched Firewall over the weekend, starring the 64 year-old Harrison Ford.

Ford plays a bank's IT security guy whose family is taken hostage in an effort to force Ford to assist the bad guys in stealing millions of dollars from his bank.

This movie is average at best. It was somewhat ludicrous to watch Ford as a character who had to be at least 20 years younger than he really is (born 13 July 1942). No 64 year-old bank employee could take the physical pounding that Ford more or less shrugs off. At times, his age showed glaringly as he moved like a senior citizen.

Then there was his family, a mid-thirties wife, a teenage daughter, and a pre-teen son. Yeah, right.

Harrison Ford is just too old to be taken seriously in this kind of role. It's time to "grow up" as a character and take more appropriate rolls.

Image from Movieweb.com

My New Ride

Here's my new car! A Suzuki Aerio. It's a sporty little AWD hatchback that seems very comfortable, roomy, and drives nicely. It's got a lot of features including heated mirrors, ABS, and MP3/WMA compatible 6 disc CD changer.

I really liked my Kia Sorento. It's big shortcoming, however, was fuel economy (or lack thereof). Seventeen mpg just wasn't working with $3 gas. The window sticker on this Suzuki said 24/29, and all my Web research reported 26/31 mpg. It's only got a 13 gallon tank, though, so I'll still have to fill up just as often. It won't cost $50 to do so, though.

I didn't find anything really negative in my research apart from some reviewers not liking the radical styling. Even the Car Talk guys said it was a good, very nice car.

Math hasn't changed since Isaac Newton

Sun's McNealy Leads Non-Profit Open-Source Drive - Forbes.com: "Sun's McNealy Leads Non-Profit Open-Source Drive"

Greg Levine, 08.04.06, 4:42 PM ET

'Math hasn't changed since Isaac Newton,' declares Scott McNealy. So why, he asks, is California paying some $400 million annually to 'update' grade-school textbooks?

That's just one of the practices questioned by the Sun Microsystems chairman. And one of the problems he believes can be solved.

McNealy, who handed Sun's chief executive reins to Jonathan Schwartz earlier this year, is now applying his know-how to steer the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC). That's a non-profit entity, spun off from Sun in January, which aims to make open-source software available to the world's kids for free--just as Sun sought to distribute its Solaris operating system and other wares to businesses, for profit. "

Citing instances of California schools "afraid to tell you their test scores," the Sun co-founder declared that the 2001 No Child Left Behind act championed by the George W. Bush administration should really be recast as "no child held back" by physical and economic data constraints.

(More)

Flight 93 Memorial

A one-minute compilation of stills and video shot at the crash site near Shanksville, PA, 8/6/06

(Sorry, in the uploading process the last few seconds got clipped. I'm trying to resolve that.)

The Hard Disk That Changed the World

Levy: The Hard Disk That Changed the World - Newsweek Steven Levy - MSNBC.com: "If there's a bottle of vintage champagne you've been saving, next month is the time to pop it open: it's the 50th anniversary of hard-disk storage. Don't laugh. On Sept. 13, 1956, IBM shipped the first unit of the RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) and set in motion a process that would change the way we live."

"The total amount of information stored on its 50 spinning iron-oxide-coated disks—each of them a pizza-size 24 inches—was 5 megabytes."

IDENTITY - An Interesting, Unusual Film

I'm not often as totally surprised by the turn of events in a movie as I was by Identity.

Image from IMDB

Ten disparate strangers including an ex-cop turned limo driver (John Cusack), a hooker (Amanda Peet), and a corrections officer (Ray Liotta) come together in an isolated motel in the Nevada desrt, stranded by a torrential storm. It's not long before, one by one, they are being murdered and counted down using room keys. As the night passes, the travellers distrust of each other rises along with the body count.

A not unpredictable plot line which for a good portion of the movie could have been subtitled, "When Bad Thing Happen to Stupid People", one of those movies you watch once and never think about it again. Then, wait for it, comes the plot twist. I did not see this coming and suddenly the earlier events of the film are seen in an entirely different context.

Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. (More on IMDB)