Quiddity

2012 Elections Game of Thrones Style

God help us all.

Via GitM.

Computerized Testing in Schools

Here's an article about the absurdity of forcing 4 to 6 year olds to take standardized computerized tests in school.  I'm so glad our principal realized what a waste of time it was and put a stop to it this year.  When is this testing craze going to end?  

 Although our district's administration believes these tests are given on a level playing field (because in this age of technology, most children are supposedly exposed to computers at a young age), our primary students often come to school with little or no computer experience. In fact, many early childhood researchers believe that responsible parenting means little or no screen time for primary school children. As a result, young students click at random. One of my colleagues reported that she often witnesses students rubbing the mouse on their faces or on the computer screens. And this data is supposed to help guide our teaching?

 

Fracking is fracked up

Interesting article about how fracking has changed the rural landscape of Pennsylvania...and not for the better.

“I was first struck by the dramatic transformation of the landscape,” Berman told me. “The rigs at night looked like the set of a science-fiction film.” Public-health concerns have further driven her project. “As I learned more about the health impacts, I sought out individual stories,” she said. “Vast profits often produce personal pain, and there are many people in Pennsylvania and around the country feeling trapped in a gas land they never authorized or envisioned.”

The pepper-spraying cop gets Photoshop justice

John Pike is an insensitive idiot who deserves a lot worse than this internet meme.

Even Kamran Loghman, one of the men who developed pepper spray as a weapon with the FBI in the 1980s, had a hard time reconciling it. "I have never seen such an inappropriate and improper use of chemical agents," Loghman told the New York Times. And Loghman might add "insouciant" to that list of adjectives. I mean, look at the guy. He's not braced for imminent attack by a foe; he does not move with tension as if navigating a hostile environment. He's administering punishment, and his face says: "Meh."

Link via BoingBoing.

The health risks that can be caused by pepper spray.

Privileged food & air for China's elite

BLDGBLOG has a fascinating post about how the wealthy government & business leaders of China breathe in air from top-of-the-line air purifiers inside their buildings.  They even portable ones that they carry around with them when they travel.  I also wasn't aware that they eat their own separate organically grown food.

“Creating clean, healthy air for our national leaders is a blessing to the people,” boasts the company’s promotional material, which includes endorsements from a variety of government and corporate leaders, among them Long Yongtu, a top economic official who insists on bringing the device along for car rides and hotel stays. “Breathing clean air is a basic human need,” he says in a testimonial.

A basic human need that only the elite in China can afford to enjoy.

Laughing at the Murdoch Scandal

Via STFU, conservatives!

Link via traveler's diagram.

The Women in Rupert Murdoch's Life!  Bring on the Wendi Deng Lifetime movie!

How ed reformers outfoxed the teachers' unions

Watch this Youtube video showing Stand For Children’s Jonah Edelman bragging about the strategies he used to take down the teachers' unions in Illinois.  You gotta ask yourself why billionaires are suddenly so interested in throwing money towards education reform.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.      

"In this Machiavellian masterpiece, we see Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children infamy (list of donors here) describe in great detail how great wads of hedge-fund and other corporate cash came to bear on the last legislative election in Illinois, how all the best lobbyists were bought up by Deform (including minority ones), how unions were outspent and how politicians followed the money, how teacher unions were lured to the table and how they were totally manhandled by the best lawyers and negotiators that money can buy, how union leaders became complicit, scared, weak, groveling." 

More below:

Stand for Children Stands for the Rich and the Powerful...

Read the transcript of the whole session here.

How to Fool the Unions and Bribe Politicians

Dozens of Atlanta educators falsified tests

It's been discovered that dozens of Atlanta educators have falsified test scores at 44 different schools in Atlanta.  Cheating is never okay, but I can understand why they did it.  This is what happens when you use fear and threats to force schools to raise test scores.

Now they want to test 4-year-olds!!!

I am so angry at Arne Duncan and President Obama that my head could explode.  Now RTTT wants to start testing pre-schoolers for kindergarten readiness.  I'm just appalled by this.  RTTT is basically NCLB on steroids and it's getting out of control!  You have no idea how much time, money, and resources are being wasted by standardized testing.  My struggling students don't receive the extra help they need because my teacher's aide is too busy testing.  

Under the competition guidelines developed by the Education Department—working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—a winning state must:

• Come up with and use early-learning and development standards for children, along with assessments;
• Develop and administer kindergarten-readiness tests, and develop rating systems for early-education programs;
• Demonstrate cooperation across the multiple agencies that touch early-childhood issues (from departments of health to education), and establish statewide standards for what early-childhood educators should know;
• Have a good track record on early learning, and an ambitious plan to improve those programs;
• Make sure early learning and prekindergarten data is incorporated into its longitudinal data system.

And where are states magically supposed to come up with money to pay for all of this?!  My district had to do away with preschool last year due to budget cuts.  Full-day kindergarten is in danger of becoming half-day because the funding is just not there to support it.  What's going to happen if the students don't meet the standards?  And what about the students who receive no type of early childhood education at all because their parents can't afford it!

$230,000 Guard Dogs

The wealthy need tax breaks because they apparently don't have the money to create jobs, and yet they can afford $230,000 guard dogs to protect their family.  Oh, and fire their human bodyguards in the process.

 “I’ve turned down offers of more than $200,000 for one of my champion dogs,” said Mr. Curry, who added that he knew of a dog that had sold for more than $400,000 because of its bloodline and breeding potential. (Although Julia’s offspring most likely would have commanded top prices, Mr. Johnson said he had no time to breed her and instead had her spayed shortly after buying her in January.)

Link via super punch.

Romney: ‘I’m Also Unemployed’

“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”

He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.

Ugh, seriously?  Do us a favor and stay that way.

Link via andrew sullivan.