tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54269742026-06-22T12:34:24.463-07:00The Concrete DonkeyErichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.comBlogger719125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-64524761808121826032021-04-25T08:31:00.002-07:002021-04-25T08:31:32.577-07:00Worth the 15 minute watch Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-37481199341698236402021-04-24T17:19:00.002-07:002021-04-24T17:19:47.679-07:00Mind CandyI just finished Collective on Hulu, and it was amazing and devastating. It starts with a fire at a nightclub in Romania in which dozens of people die. A local sports reporter begins to investigate why so many people died in the hospital AFTER the fire, and starts to uncover a massive web of corruption. The unfettered access the documentarians had to the reporters and the minister of health Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-51725176140433899082021-02-20T08:24:00.001-08:002021-02-20T08:34:14.831-08:00 Mind Candy - February 20I finished Caca Dolce by Spokane author Chelsea Martin, and it was amazing. It was funny and honest and I was blown away. I was so excited by it that I asked her to be on our radio show. You can hear the interview here or anywhere you get your podcasts. Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom on Netflix was a hard documentary to watch, with all the blood and violence. I kept Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-13262611149580276122019-08-19T11:58:00.000-07:002019-08-19T14:02:35.227-07:00London Trip The Tower of London The residential quarters The White Tower inside the fortification for the original city of Londinium. A Beefeater and a beefy eater The prison room where Anne Boleyn awaited her execution Tower Bridge Yes, I took that, and yes, that is a real glint of sun off the top. View from Tower Bridge The Shard 73 Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-40834809827197187052018-11-16T08:27:00.001-08:002018-11-16T08:27:39.013-08:00A metaphor of our timeErichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-47883000773455840972018-11-16T08:05:00.002-08:002018-11-16T08:05:30.497-08:00The Lanyard Olympics The Stress Olympics is real on high school and college campuses.  For educators, it's the Lanyard Olympics. We are important in proportion to how many keys we have on the lanyard around our neck, and how much noise it makes as we walk. Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-47155161454003597722018-08-09T13:57:00.001-07:002018-08-09T13:57:29.765-07:00What a fascinating story......and a great idea for a song. Did this unassuming small-town couple steal a $160 million Willem de Kooning painting?  Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-6316972931136318682017-01-02T10:49:00.004-08:002017-01-02T10:49:56.561-08:00Finishing thingsI spent the last week of break finishing things. -The Knick, Season 2: a delicious period-piece soap opera with a bonkers finale. -Black Mirror, Season 3: ended with a silly ray of hope. Maybe the darkest show ever. -Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter: such a lovely story with a lovely ending. I cried. Hard. -A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan: structurally interesting and pleasantly Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-1328227501755754732016-02-10T08:20:00.003-08:002016-02-10T08:20:43.743-08:00The F-word as ProgressEvery time I walk through the halls at LC, I hear the F-word. Maybe only once a day, but it is so common as to be unremarkable. When I hear it, I wonder if I should chastise the student. Sometimes, of course, I must, because the student says it so loudly something needs to be said. Most of the time, it's only a conversation between friends, so I just let it pass and pretend I didn't hear it. It Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-26805390823465629652016-01-22T14:28:00.001-08:002016-01-22T14:28:22.296-08:00Troy McClure and Steely Dan I had to fact-check this because I thought it was a hoax, but apparently comedian Phil Hartman designed album covers (like the one on the left--no shit!) before he became a comedian.  See more covers here Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-29522699002533670612016-01-22T10:24:00.003-08:002016-01-22T10:24:50.528-08:00The White Man Pathology: Inside the Fandom of Sanders and Trump A Canadian, Stephen Marche, reporting for The Guardian, drives to Iowa for back-to-back Trump and Sanders rallies. Like many Canadians and Englishmen before him, he is able to look at America from a remove, and what he sees, both Democrat and Republican (and overwhelmingly white), seems soaked in gloom. As for Republicans: I remember reading a passage from bell hooks once, the kind that Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-18898173293660904702016-01-03T00:31:00.002-08:002016-01-03T00:34:48.996-08:00Getting a confession no matter what If you are as fascinated with the Netflix series Making a Murderer as I was, you might also be interested to know about the Reid Technique, the method police used to interrogate Brendan Dassey. Police around the country use it. And, apparently, it sucks. To wit:  "A growing number of scientists and legal scholars have raised concerns about Reid-style interrogation. Of the three hundred Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-4673615650986382382015-12-30T13:38:00.002-08:002015-12-30T13:39:09.511-08:00Could we really be saving 100,000 lives a year?According to Vincent DeVita, of Yale Medical School, the National Cancer Institute, and former physician-in-chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital: "There are incredibly promising [cancer] therapies out there. If used to their fullest potential for all patients, I believe we could cure an additional 100,000 patients a year." Why aren't we? DeVita writes: "At this date, we are not limited Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-1441105488291330422015-12-24T11:02:00.002-08:002015-12-24T11:05:29.841-08:00"I think you have a beautiful smile" "For years, she closed her mouth when she had her picture taken, to hide the gap in her front teeth. (She'd asked for braces, but her mother wouldn't hear of it. 'She was, like, "Don't you know that in Nigeria a gap is a sign of beauty and intelligence?"') In high school, a yearbook photographer told her to smile more, and something clicked. 'He said, "I think you have a beautiful smile." My momErichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-55471794177330277302015-12-15T16:22:00.002-08:002015-12-15T16:22:59.125-08:00Political beliefs and team sportsWhen you think you have a rational opinion, ask yourself this: "What piece of evidence could convince me I'm wrong?" The piece of evidence doesn't have to really exist. You just have to acknowledge that you could be swayed if someone could provide sufficient evidence. If you can't think of anything that would persuade you, then you don't have a rational opinion. You have an emotional belief. And Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-55150071662636744272015-11-16T14:48:00.004-08:002015-11-16T15:03:47.271-08:00Bob and David's best sketch and Tom Petty's biographyBob and David return In honor of a new season of w/Bob and David on Netflix (which I haven't watched yet--God I hope it's good!), here is what many consider their best sketch. Tom Petty biography When Tom Petty asked musician Warren Zanes, a former member of the Del Fuegos and now a professor at NYU, to write his biography, Zanes was ecstatic. He worried, though, that Petty would want an Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-47782627535666320692015-11-13T09:41:00.001-08:002015-11-13T09:41:06.744-08:00Soderbergh, The Knick, and Manson Movies' most energetic director Online magazine Vulture followed Steven Soderbergh as he shoots an episode of his show The Knick. Soderbergh not only directs, but he is the principal camera operator as well, and his energy leads an actor on the show to say Soderbergh is "like a dancer." His energy has been apparent for 26 years. Since his 1989 debut, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner sex, liesErichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-77692942947857392762015-11-13T09:36:00.002-08:002015-11-13T09:43:34.253-08:00Soderbergh, The Knick, and Manson Movies' most energetic director Online magazine Vulture followed Steven Soderbergh as he shoots an episode of his show The Knick. Soderbergh not only directs, but he is the principal camera operator as well, and his energy leads an actor on the show to say Soderbergh is "like a dancer." His energy has been apparent for 26 years. Since his 1989 debut, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner sex, liesErichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-69222714103242543212015-11-07T10:16:00.000-08:002015-11-07T10:16:05.735-08:00America's schools don't suck, scary ideas (again), and an inspiring teacher The bad rap on American education Many Americans just assume that our education system is terrible, and that our students run the risk of being overtaken by students in India and China. The Wilson Quarterly disagrees: Our best public schools are first-rate, producing more intense, involved, and creative ­A-­plus students than our most prestigious colleges have room for. That is why Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-1445605512784960532015-11-01T14:42:00.000-08:002015-11-01T14:42:06.762-08:00College applications, scary ideas, and Texas justiceIs the college application process broken? Last week I submitted six letters of recommendation for my students. As I struggle to say just the right thing for my talented students, I wonder if the college admittance process is as efficient as it can be. One professor doesn't think so, and he has an interesting proposal for fixing the process. There is a better way for colleges to gather Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-390244520016327122015-10-29T14:54:00.000-07:002015-10-29T14:55:18.004-07:00Jeb Bush, psych majors, four vampires, and revolutionWhy you pickin' on psych majors? In last night's Republican debate, Jeb Bush cast aspersions on psych majors. After saying "the No. 1 degree program in the country is psychology,” Bush said, “I just don’t think people are getting jobs as psych majors.” He added, "Hey, that psych major deal … that’s great … but realize you’re going to be working at Chick-fil-A.” Since my daughter is a psych Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-82164149967031510922015-10-23T12:41:00.003-07:002015-10-23T14:45:11.600-07:00Big words, Trump's a 4th grader, and the Presidential SpeechalistK.I.S.S I have been trying to tell my students this for years, but we finally have evidence: using big words does not make you look smart. In fact, the opposite is true. In one experiment, the researchers — including Daniel M. Oppenheimer, of the UCLA Anderson School of Management — took real college admission essays and replaced some of the simpler words used in them with more Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-73521899951376980032015-10-22T15:05:00.000-07:002015-10-22T15:05:18.575-07:00The man who beat Edison, the Flu, and Terry GrossThe man who defeated Thomas Edison The man who holds more patents than anyone (including Thomas Edison) is Lowell Wood of Bellevue, WA. What makes the story intriguing to me is that he was terrible in school. Wood insists that if he’s smart, he didn’t start out that way. Growing up in Southern California, he says, “I didn’t do well in any classes.” He often failed or received the lowest score Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-67273425430026956512015-10-20T15:13:00.001-07:002015-10-21T14:51:05.989-07:00Witches, a Cold Little Bird, and CanadaMaybe the Salem Witch Trials were easy to explain: powerful adults steeped in tales of witchcraft are poised to believe the tales of girls who have finally found a way to exert power. Then the accusations fade because the people of Massachusetts realize the finger could be pointed at anybody. Stacy Schiff's new book, The Witches: Salem, 1692, gets a positive review in The Atlantic. The short Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5426974.post-1851037379939832862015-10-17T11:19:00.000-07:002015-10-21T14:53:46.434-07:00School shooters, teachers, and do-goodersMalcolm Gladwell on school shooters As a high-school teacher, this article's conclusion terrified me. "The problem is not that there is an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts." I don't know if he is right. God I hope not. The podcast The Erichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09819378102315534002noreply@blogger.com0