August 20th, 2005 | Published in Science
Light that travels faster than light
A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible to control the speed of light – both slowing it down and speeding it up – in an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal environmental conditions.
[HT: Slashdot]
August 20th, 2005 | Published in Books & Reading, Language, Quotes
Almost anything by George Orwell has been valuable to me because he is the most clearheaded thinker I know. He is never tyrannized or even captivated by words, and his analyses of the way people’s minds become unsettled by nonsense are the best examples we have of “crap detecting.” My ambition in life is to grow up to be George Orwell.
—Neil Postman, Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk (1976), p. 257
August 19th, 2005 | Published in Books & Reading, Culture, Education
Compare this to the Camille Paglia quote I mentioned yesterday.
I think there are plenty of people out there who don’t read books and who are none the worse for it – my mum for one…. And why not? Since when did a regular quota of suitably serious reading matter become obligatory? And who decides what’s worthy anyway?
August 18th, 2005 | Published in Culture, Education
School leaders, teachers get tutorial on performance pay
Talk about a conflict of interest! If something like this were implemented, the teachers would be even more compelled to cave in to student interest (instead of education) and grade curving. Pay increases as grades increase? I have no idea how anyone could think this would result in a better education for the students. It will only make it worse. Then again, maybe educators are not interested in providing the best education anymore.
Under QComp, 60 percent of raises will be based on teacher evaluations and gains by students at the classroom and school levels. In participating districts, administrators and teachers will come up with local plans for measuring performance, subject to approval by the state. Teachers can never lose pay for missing their goals.
August 18th, 2005 | Published in Culture, Language, Literature, Technology
A great quote from someone I don’t usually agree with, Camille Paglia, from an interview with Robert Birnbaum published in The Morning News:
We are getting worse writing, worse art. Part of the reason for the much worse writing is that young people have so many other distractions in terms of their time—so many things to do, that reading books has just shriveled. They are assigned books, but few kids read books for pleasure. Too much else is going on. Now I’m a champion of the web—I began writing for Salon in 1995 from the first issue on. But the style of the web, not only the surfing skimming style that you learn—dash, dash—you absorb information not by reading whole sentences. It’s flash, flash, flash. Email, blog, everything is going fast, fast, fast. So the quality of language has obviously degenerated. It’s obvious.
August 18th, 2005 | Published in Culture, Quotes
The great problem with most stereotypes and “prejudice” is not that there is no truth in them, but that there is just enough so that we may not see what is false. The dark side of prejudging and stereotyping is that they encourage us to hold on to old pictures, and, therefore, to act as if they were up-to-date.
—Neil Postman, Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk (1976), p. 165
August 17th, 2005 | Published in Books & Reading, Economics
Good advice on how to keep local bookstores a viable and profitable business model in a “.com” world.
August 17th, 2005 | Published in Humor and Satire
Economy Shows Signs of Strain From Oil Prices
Check out this picture caption from an article in today’s The New York Times. Maybe the The Onion is now writing for NYT.
Hollie Tubbs said gasoline prices had forced her to look for amusements for her son, Brandon Segure, that are close to home in Brooklyn.