NY Times: The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade. This author makes some excellent points. I’ve heard the argument for pushing start times back for high school, but never in the context of improving eduction. When you think of all the money schools invest in “programs” to raise test scores, maybe starting late and staying even later makes a lot of sense.
Collegian: Pot funds student’s tuition, police say. Although $100,000 in cash could probably fund a couple students’ tuition. God I hope they find out this is a business major – what a great senior thesis that would be 🙂
010408_20271.jpg, originally uploaded by Steve Clancy.
I was at the Hartford Wolfpack-Hershey Bears game on Friday. Given Hershey’s sweet early lead, this was the highlight of the game.
“You Don’t Understand Our Audience”. Former Dateline correspondent’s John Hockenberry writes about the pitfalls of today’s network news coverage. It’s a pretty damning account – stories picked to fit entertainment programming, corporate red tape, and poor news judgment. Think Network. It makes me wonder what it would take to get me to watch TV news again.
Australia announces mandatory internet filters to protect children. “Labor [Party] makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road,” telecommunications minister Stephen Conroy said. I’m not sure which is a greater sign of your country moving to a totalitarian state: internet censorship or leaders referring to their party as object (Labor makes not apologies…).
Zach Braff Quotes. In the vein of Chuck Norris facts, somebody created a site full of made up quotes attributed to Zach Braff, satirizing Braff and movie stars in general. My favorite so far: “Is ‘Garden State’ the next ‘Citizen Kane’? Of course not. I’d like to think we aimed a little higher than that, frankly.” – Zach Braff
New Lost Season 4 Trailer. Lost is coming back in January to satisfy the needs of strike weary TV viewers (and possibly leave an awkward cliffhanger since only 8 episodes were filmed pre-strike). This trailer is longer than the first preview I saw and gives a good idea of what’s to come. It looks like the show is going to take on the seismic shift alluded to in last year’s finale and this season might actually have a little more plot than past years. (credit: Ain’t It Cool News)
Inquirer: Outdoor game with Pens floated. Flyers GM Paul Holmgren wants to see his team play an annual outdoor hockey game with Pittsbugh at Beaver Stadium. IN. Of course there is that little problem of JoePa not letting anyone on the field (probably for fear of overshadowing football as much as protecting the field). Still, its an exciting idea.
ZDNet: WordPress vs. an army of clunky content management systems. As someone who has attempted to build and maintain one of those “other” content management systems, I agree 100% with this article. My only compliant is that more people haven’t extended WordPress or built plug-ins to add the features that print publishers want/need.
Inquirer: Stripped of their rights. Part 2 of a series on police abuses in Pennsylvania, this article discusses how local police strip search people for minor crimes despite court rulings that ban them. Yesterday they discussed how suburban police harass minorities. What strikes me most about these stories is they are exactly the type of stories that a metropolitan newspaper should be doing and demonstrates what will be lost if these papers go under. What I don’t understand is why this story is the top on Philly.com right now instead of the in-depth series.