Educational Reform in America: The Trouble With Numbers

A recent post at The 21st Century Principal blog, "Can US Learn Ed Reform from Finland?", by J. Robinson*, posits that, "[American] education reformers dismiss all of what Finland does because 'that country lacks diversity...'" While I agree with many of Robinson's subsequent points, this particular assertion requires clarification.

Diversity is a valid and relevant discrepancy in any comparison of the U.S. teaching system to the Finnish education system. Having a national population of approximately 5.3 million (http://bit.ly/ggWbZw,) there are only as many Finns in all of Finland as there are citizens in the state of Missouri (http://bit.ly/hO9DUZ,) and Helsinki, the largest of Finland's cities, has a mere 588,000 residents (http://bit.ly/dEQ9WN.)

Even if it were equivalent to the United States in ethnic or class diversity (and it isn't,) the urban population of Helsinki alone contains a staggering 11 percent of the entire country's inhabitants; whereas the largest American urban center, New York City, contains only two percent of all Americans (http://bit.ly/gKbmvx.) When this number is combined with the 8 other U.S. cities of one million or more inhabitants, the sum total still amounts to only 7 percent of the American population (http://bit.ly/gn2T6X.) On this basis alone, it should be clear that the Finnish system has had a distinct advantage towards the facilitation of a streamlined methodology that the U.S. would never be able to match.

This is not to say that every idea or model for systemic change should be dismissed as futile, only that its implementation will always pose a significant challenge to any established institution: the more an infrastructure expands, the less effective it is likely to be.

(Maria H. Andersen's article, "The World Is My School: Welcome to the Era of Personalized Learning," at the World Future Society's website, addresses this paradox from a different perspective, outside the box, as it were. Worthwhile reading.)


*Robinson's post, in turn, relates an argument by Pasi Sahlberg from an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe.

Carpe noctem?

I suppose I'm overdue for an update; I will be doing that soon, however, now is not the time. Too tired, must sleep!

formspring.me

Go on, ask another - I dare you. http://formspring.me/b00jUm

What music are you listening to today?

L.A. Vampires Meets Zola Jesus; an hour ago it was Simone Dinnerstein's recording of the Bach Goldberg variations.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What was the best concert you went to?

Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood tour, at the Opera House in Toronto...er...I think that was in '94...?

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Jeepers!

This is just a quick post to say, "hurray!" I'd like to blog more on the subject of Hal Niedzviecki's Peep Diaries coming to town next week but I'm in a hurry just now. Watch for updates and click the link in the meantime!

If you were to roll back time, to which era would you roll it back to?

Good question. The short answer is that I wouldn't - I'm reasonably satisfied that one era is as good as another, thus a rollback would only deprive me of my own chronological authenticity.

If, for whatever reason, I did backtrack, then assuming it were possible to do so safely AND return to the present intact, I would love to see the birth of the universe - if such a singular, defining moment ever occurred.

If not, then I'd want to do one of the following: a) pan forward to the moment at which a quantifiable explanation for material existence is discovered*; or, b) fast-forward to the end of time*; or, c) rewind as far as possible.

* That is, if forward time-travel were possible, and/or that time is finite.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What was your favorite toy to play with as a child?

Lego! Having the freedom to imagine and build one's own toys is the best preoccupation a kid can have.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Would you rather be a zombie or a mummy?

Mummy; dry rot sounds much more appealing than the zombie variety.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

If you could ask Barack Obama one question what would it be?

"Can you get me a seat on the space shuttle?"

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Would you rather vacation at the beach or in the mountains?

Depends on which beach or mountains and my mood. Ideally I'd choose a beach *on* a mountain.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What was your favorite TV show as a child?

Tom Baker-era Doctor Who. It was like the Sesame Street for Star Wars kids.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

If you could ask Barack Obama one question what would it be?

"Can you get me a seat on the space shuttle?"

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What does your daily writing routine look like, in terms of scheduling tasks (i.e. 9-10: edit; etc.)?

What does your daily writing routine look like, in terms of scheduling tasks (i.e. 9-10: edit; etc.)?

Answer here

What was your favorite birthday gift?

No idea - I can't even remember my birthday from this year - and that was last week.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What's your favorite drink?

Manhattan.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

If you could eat dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would it be and where would you go?

Alfred Hitchcock at 21 Club (of course!)

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

If you could have the starring role in one movie what would it be?

An existing film (La Jetée, probably) or a potential film (anything w/o dialogue!)?

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Test!?

(Given the underwhelming response to yesterday's post, I have concluded that I must be all alone here on my blog, sort of like in Richard Matheson's I Am Legend except instead of vampires, I'm surrounded by a whole lot of no one.)

"B*rthday," the dirtiest word

I despise the b-word, I really do; the last thing I'd ever take pleasure in is this annual reminder of my inevitable expiry date.

Nevertheless, today is "my" day - which, incidentally, coincides with the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing (happy frikkin D-Day to me) - thusly, I humbly request presents via my brand new "Donate" widget at the top-right of this page.

As a perpetually-starving student, a decent meal is all I ask - so donate a sandwich or something, yeah? I promise that I'll christen my next meal with your name. Alternately, you're welcome to visit my Amazon wish list, because a decent meal only goes so far.

Is there anyone you would you wait in line for 48 hours to meet?

Absolutely not: I learned my lesson the day I waited 3 hours to meet Clive Barker at a convention. Evidently I'd rather be elsewhere doing other things with all that time; waiting 48 hours would kill me out outright!

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Would you stop purchasing music if online music streaming services were to offer all of your favourite artists ?

Would you stop purchasing music if online music streaming services were to offer all of your favourite artists ?

Answer here

What's the oldest piece of clothing you still own and wear?

This is a great question! :D
The one thing I still have (and wear) is my 1992 Napalm Death "Campaign for Musical Destruction" longsleeve tour shirt, with all the concert dates listed down the sleeve (Toronto - September 26.) It's seen better days but I still wear it around the house sometimes despite its frayed cuffs and myriad holes.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What were you most afraid of as a little kid and how did you get over it?

Oh boy, that's a good question. I'm tempted to say sharks (thank you so much, Mr. Spielberg), but my only distinct, real-world fear that I can recall was of wasps - stung by a whole nest of 'em when I was 12 - never really got over it, either: I don't run screaming in fear at the sight of them, but fat chance that anything with a stinger is ever going to get close enough to land on ME again!

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

What's the oldest piece of clothing you still own and wear?

This is a great question! :D
The one thing I still have (and wear) is my 1992 Napalm Death "Campaign for Musical Destruction" longsleeve tour shirt, with all the concert dates listed down the sleeve (Toronto - September 26.) It's seen better days but I still wear it around the house sometimes despite its frayed cuffs and myriad holes.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Who do you think should be the next president of the United States?

Bruce, the mechanical shark from the film, Jaws.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Would you rather swim in a pool or the ocean?

All things being equal I don't have a preference - but I *am* phobic of sharks.

Go on, ask another - I dare you.

Commodus 64?

Thousands of years before the WWF, the emperor Commodus gathered all the dwarfs, cripples, and freaks his guards could locate around Rome and had them dragged over to the Colosseum. There they were all given meat cleavers and commanded to hack each other to death. [this factoid via the Useless Knowledge gadget at Duoclam.com]

It occurred to me when I read this that, given the way TV is going, what with the popularity of "extreme" (read: blood) sports, it's only a matter of maybe another couple of generations (if we all should live so long) before the next big reality TV phenomenon is a literal atrocity a la Commodus.

If Stephen Hawking payed you $10,000 to kill Oprah, would you do it?

I would take the money and run; unless that chair of his is seriously tricked out, there's no way he'd catch me.

(Is that all there is?)

If you could have invented one thing, what would it have been?

Thomas Edison.

(Is that all there is?)

What would your dream job look like?

Fun - lots of it - accompanied by an unlimited expense account.

(Is that all there is?)

What was the best concert you went to?

Neurosis, "Through Silver in Blood" tour.
Opera House - Toronto, Ontario Canada 1996.

(Is that all there is?)

How many countries have you traveled to?

Just one.
(so far!)

(Is that all there is?)

What was the worst advice you've ever received?

Follow the rules and be quiet.

(Is that all there is?)

If you could look like anybody, who would it be?

You're lookin' at him, so to speak.

(Is that all there is?)

What do you think is your most attractive feature?

Attractive to who? If we're talkin' mosquitoes, I'd say any exposed skin.

(Is that all there is?)

What's your dream car?

Ha! I despise cars; the only good car is a dead car.

(Is that all there is?)

Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

This image certainly puts things into perspective.
Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

Would you rather be a famous musician or a famous actor?

Er, actor - but only for the cushy travel arrangements.

(Is that all there is?)

Screwing it up since 1877

So here's what my Useless Knowledge feed had to say this morning:

"The first operators employed by the Bell Telephone Company were young boys who worked standing up. Only after several years did it occur to anybody to provide them with chairs."

The Telephone History Timeline Page, which - thankfully - has an annotated bibliography for further verification, states that "commercial telephone service begins" in 1877 and that "[s]witchboard operators were no longer necessary to make a telephone call" as of 1891.

If we assume that switchboard operators were required from the start then Bell has been in the business of technological innovation at the expense of actual people - evidently its employees, in particular - for over 125 years.

I wonder if I'll take any comfort from that fact the next time I have to talk to Bell Canada's "automated operator", Emily.

At least she doesn't need a chair.

20,000 Views and Still Pretty

A little follow-up for those of you who saw my previous post regarding a fan-made video for Emilie Autumn's "Thank God I'm Pretty":

Thrilled by the more than 15,000 pageviews the video has received this week, Miss Autumn appealed to her Twitter followers yesterday for contact info to the little nippers responsible.

Not one to rest on her laurels Autumn wrote, "Let's go for 40,000!!"

Well? You heard the lady, go watch!

Who was your first crush?

Helen. She was 4 and my best friend's little sister. I was 5 and completely smitten.

(Is that all there is?)

Emilie Autumn - Thank God I'm Pretty (Fan Made)

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

I think omnipotence would suffice.

(Is that all there is?)

Blog Apocalypse

Holy crap, either I really need to keep up with all of my RSS feeds or I should cut back on my blog subscriptions/followings: the "Reading List" on my dashboard is acting like a waterfall, what with the perpetual cascade of updates. :S

If you could choose, how would you want to die?

I could have sworn I answered this recently..?

Anyway, given the choice, I suppose I'd want to die painlessly and/or quickly. Suffering and terminal illness would kill me. Twice.

(Is that all there is?)

Die Antwoord - WOOT! - $0$.mov

Nope, Not This Time - No Sale, Hollywood!

I just saw an ad for the Batman franchise on Bluray, each film selling for $24.99, and I remembered that that was exactly where the average DVD pricepoint was hovering when I got my first DVD player almost ten years ago.

Here we are, I thought, ten years later and the same damned films that I bought on DVD (actually, not Batman - I never saw the point of purchasing anything but the first Burton one and even that I didn't bother with - but you get the idea) have to be paid for - AGAIN - if I want them on Bluray?

I give up. I don't have a strategy or a plan yet, but I've decided that I'm never going to buy another film on disc ever again. Sayonara, major studios, networks and production companies - you're screwing consumers for whatever they're willing to pay - and I'm not going to accept that anymore.

There really ought to be an "F-you" emoticon, i.e. the Finger-Smiley, although having said that I guess I'd better hurry up and copyright the idea.

Footage of suspect in New York's Times Square car bomb scare caught on video

NEW YORK - NYPD reported that a suspect in Saturday night's Times Square bomb scare has been singled out from recordings by on-site cameras. A spokesperson for the police said, "we have obtained some clear images of the suspect abandoning the vehicle and fleeing the scene."

Although it was initially reported that smoke rising from the vehicle had tipped off police a number of eyewitnesses have since rebuked this claim.  Oscar Fuentes, a Brooklyn convenience store owner, had just exited one of the theatres with his wife when, he said, "there was this flash and...I know it sounds weird, but the guy jumped out, waving his arms around and when he ran off I saw the smoke and that his pants were on fire."

Police are asking that anyone who saw the suspect running from the area with smoke trailing behind to please contact them immediately.  No link has been found to connect this event with "Umar-pants", the failed Detroit suicide bomber of December 2009, but police have stated that, "we are working with Homeland Security to investigate any potential affiliation between Umar and our suspect in order to get to the bottom of this incident as soon as possible."

Chale Ashley is A.OK

Thanks to everyone who helped out, Chale is safe and sound and in touch with her family. :)

Please help find CHALE ASHLEY

Chale Ashley is a friend of a friend of mine and she's gone missing in the southern U.S. (see the article from the Citrus Daily.) Chale was last heard from on Sunday, 18 April 2010 in Citrus County, Florida. 

What's most important right now is that everybody knows somebody; between the local police, media, communities and all of the people online, someone should be able to tap a contact in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas who either has or can help find the information needed to bring Chale home.

Please, if you can help in any way, get in touch asap - timing is everything!

This isn't much fun without a question-asking person.

No, it really isn't. Your serve.

(Is that all there is?)

Introducing...Amanda Crawford, Illustrator and Entrepreneuse Extraordinaire!

Who doesn't love storybook illustrations, right?  It just so happens that this is Amanda's area of expertise, so I thought I'd share her fantastically brilliant work with all of you!

Quick rundown: Originally from Windsor, Ontario (although Montreal is her current base of operations), Amanda entered the world of illustration art via her self-published zine, Horror Vacui, which one used to be able to find in bookshops around town here in Windsor (in fact, I discovered a copy in the graphic arts section of the university bookstore as recently as last year!) Now she's working freelance and putting together her very own children's book. You can see some of those images to be included at her blog (http://amandacrawfordart.com). 

Of course, thanks to the wonders of technology and the persistence of time, you can now find her artwork with much greater ease (and significantly less legwork than I had to resort to) online.  See her blog as well: "The Wondrous Wonder, The Marvelous Marvel" (http://wondrouswonder.blogspot.com/), which is rapidly becoming an incredible archive of historical children's book illustrations, hand-picked by Miss Crawford and definitely worth a peek in my humble opinion, 4 STARS!!!

Oh, and don't be shy - like any former zinester, she loves reader comments and email!

Amusement at 4 a.m.

I wish the new "3D-security feature" for the U.S. $100 bill could be this much fun. Why the hell do heads of state always get stamped on money, anyway? I would have loved a commemorative 20th anniversary E.T. $20 bill, for instance.

If your house was on fire and you could only grab three things, what would they be?

Fire extinguisher, flour, phone: only way all my stuff's gonna burn is over my barbecued body.

(Why the hell am I still awake?)

Do you believe in God?

If there's proof of a g*d who believes in *me*, I'll consider it.

(Why the hell am I still awake?)

AFP: 'Rats ate your exams,' Nepal students told

AFP: 'Rats ate your exams,' Nepal students told

For some peculiar reason, I found this really funny.

Virtual Perambulations

A brief glimpse at the meandering path of my curiosity:

1. Followed up on last night's tweets regarding band stranded by volcanic ash in Geneva, which led me to a reply from Quebecois grindcore band Fuck the Facts' on their Facebook fan page.
2. Followed a link from FTF to their new "Unnamed EP" download site (unrelated to stranded band and/or volcanoes, obviously) curious to see if it was a PWYC deal; unfortunately for me, no.
3. Ended up on MySpace somehow, maybe via a return to FTF@Facebook (?) My activity feed noted a "free live recording" from Phantoms of the SS but after clicking to their profile, turns out that meant, "free with download of any PotSS album". Listened to their MySpace player instead as soundtrack to my browsing - "Sleeping Green" is particularly good, reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti's work on Twin Peaks.
4. Followed notification of Flickr update to a page I follow which introduced me to model/actress Verushka, who I had never heard of previously (not that I recall anyway.) Wikipedia says she was in Antonioni's Blowup - one of my favourite films, in fact - so checked the Wiki entry for that film, confirming Verushka's appearance. Now I want to see it again - and Zabriskie Point as well (another favourite film of mine.) Maybe there are excerpts on Movieclips.com.
5. I have, thus far, neglected to mention that while the above points denote the main browsing path, this was abandoned repeatedly in favour of persistent detours along tangential lines including visits to:  Twitter; Gmail; Tumblr; various forums; Hotmail; local newspaper's website; Gnews; etc. In this regard, the "Session Manager" extension for Chrome is a godsend - it allows me to save all of my open tabs as a session for later reference. Without it and the use of various bookmarking services I would be lost - and horribly disorganized!

No wonder I spend whole days in front of my laptop. :S

Who's the most famous person you've met?

Clive Barker, unless I've met someone *more famous* and forgotten it.

(Anyone there?)

The Work of Avelina De Moray - Skin & Ink Interview (and me, quoted)

Me, quoted in the April 2010 issue of Skin & Ink magazine (UK edition) regarding the artwork of Avelina De Moray. Sometimes it's kinda cool to be me.

(Uploaded 16 April 2010)

formspring.me

(Anyone there?) http://formspring.me/b00jUm

Do you believe there's intelligent life on other planets?

I sure as hell hope so; it's not looking too promising here on Earth.

Does this get interesting at some point?

Biting a restrained bear makes your dog tough?

World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA): the latest news on animal welfare and animal cruelty issues
There are some stupid sports in the world and this is one of them. “Bear Baiting” is a gladiatorial-style test of combat prowess for “tough dogs” that requires bears be tethered to one spot while dogs are set upon them, sort of like dodgeball with teeth - but it sure as hell isn’t funny.

Help WSPA end this pointless sport by donating what you can today.

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/b00jUm

Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) - Boing Boing

Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) - Boing Boing

I'm so glad someone passed this along, I can't believe I would've missed it otherwise!

Do you use browser extensions?

I love browser tweaks. Maybe it's a guy thing, always tinkering with some new gadget - although my inner obsessive-compulsive is secretly grateful that all of my new toys don't take up any physical space (I wonder how much of my stuff I could store "in the cloud"?) - but the joy that browser extensions give me knows no bounds.

Right now I'm particularly fond of the "Beautify Facebook" app, because it limits page-scrolling to posts only AND it filters out all of those annoying sidebar ads. I'd forgotten how much I couldn't stand those things until I made the mistake of changing my relationship status to "single", at which point I was overwhelmed by online dating service ads on EVERY page I visited (and thank you so much Facebook for insinuating that I need online help to manage that offline aspect of my life.)

What I'd really like to discover is whether or not anyone ELSE I know is using browser extensions, and if so, which ones? At some point I seem to have turned into a netgeek without realizing it - I'm really, really curious to hear what people have to say on the subject.

Darth Dinner?

It is so irritating when one encounters yet another blatant crime of grammar in the daily onslaught of illiterate atrocities - particularly when the culprit's first language is, ostensibly, English - that one cannot stand to endure the madness any longer.

One must therefore respond in kind with the sort of mockery that others can and should enjoy for its own sake - even as the original perpetrator remains oblivious to his or her error - if only to admonish other lexical miscreants to consult a f*cking dictionary once in a while. :P

Litany Against Fear

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Taken from the classic Frank Herbert novel, Dune, the above text is one of the prayers and meditations of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful matriarchal order in the Duniverse* (p.19).

A cursory Google search found it instantly; thanks to Russell Coker for taking the time to post some beloved Dune ephemera.

*N.B. - I realize that the term "Duniverse" may sound corny to some, however, given the vast scope of Dune stories (not to mention film and TV adaptations) its usage has proven merit among fans. A reader unfamiliar with Dune may be tempted to mispronounce the first syllable with a short /u/ sound, i.e. the "uh" sound in "done", but given the term's similarity to "universe", I expect that anyone's first encounter would result in barely a moment's confusion.

Whah - you want me to write something *now*?

I'm not prepared for this! All I wanted to do was read a friend's blog, and I end up here? This is why everyone and their dog has a blog now, isn't it? Forced participation! Tyrants!