January 2012
4 posts
“One of the real dilemmas we have in our country and around the world is that...”
– Interview of Bill Clinton by Charles P. Pierce and Mark Warren Bill Clinton: Someone We Can All Agree On
Please Clarify IDEA Opt-Out Procedure
Dr. Carstarphen, Board of Trustees, and Mr. Sanchez:
I realize you’re scheduled to discuss allocating bond funds this evening, but I would ask that you take a few minutes to explain how parents of children assigned to attend IDEA Public Schools next fall can opt-out and instead attend a different Austin Independent School District school.
Specifically, how do parents of children set to...
AISD Hid Response to Concerns Over IDEA's...
Nearly three weeks after the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees voted to approve their partnership with IDEA to create two in-district charter schools, chief performance officer Bill Caritj released his favorable assessment of IDEA’s student performance data in response to Ed Fuller’s overwhelmingly negative analysis published in mid-November.
Before we get too deep...
December 2011
3 posts
IDEA Charters Not Just Another Choice
To the AISD Board of Trustees:
I agree with President Williams that the matter of partnering with IDEA to create two in-district charter schools is a philosophical issue. Above all, I hope we can expect a vigorous debate this evening that transcends sweeping condemnations of mediocrity and procedural mishaps and instead focuses on the nature and future of charter schools, the strengths and...
AISD's IDEA: Unanswered Questions
To the AISD Board of Trustees:
I have serious concerns with the proposal to partner with IDEA putting charter schools into East Austin. I’m no expert, but in listening and reading I still have three questions that deserve honest discussion before you move forward.
First, what’s wrong, and what’s right, in our Eastside schools? Inadequate yearly progress is a metric, not a reason. Coming from Lee...
September 2011
4 posts
2 tags
“Live your life. Live your life. Live your...
“The high cost to self-employed workers and small businesses of the private,...”
– Excerpted from Chart of the day: America’s surprisingly tiny small-business sector covering John Schmitt’s study claiming that the United States has the “the smallest small-business sector among wealthy countries.” I’ve often argued that a single-payer health care system...
Live Television Video of Key Events on 9/11/2001 →
Obama's Job Speech
Good speech, President Obama. Especially the part having nothing to do with policy where you ask us all to simply do better, to work for an America deserving of our legacy. Because despite the rhetoric, politicians don’t create jobs, invent, or teach. We do. But most of us benefit from leadership, and for that I thank you. Technically speaking, I’m all for cutting employer-paid payroll...
May 2011
1 post
“What’s high school for?
Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future...”
– Seth Godin’s What’s high school for?
April 2011
12 posts
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us...”
– Ira Glass (via nefffy)
“In other words, when we think we’re reasoning, we may instead be...”
– Excerpted from Chris Mooney’s The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science
“It’s sad, but it’s also … great, really. Imagine if...”
– Excerpted from Linda Holmes’ The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going To Miss Almost Everything
“Even deeper, for children, math looms large; there’s something about doing well...”
– Excerpted from David Bornstein’s A Better Way to Teach Math
“It will take independent-minded educators to use Jump and see if its results can...”
– Excerpted from David Bornstein’s A Better Way to Teach Math
“‘But you know, all presidents done something good. Well, most of them....”
– Excerpted from Matt Volz’s World’s oldest man dies in Montana at 114
“What puzzles me is why there isn’t more indignation. The Tea Party is the...”
– Excerpted from Roger Ebert’s The One-Percenters
officialbeastieboys:
Make Some Noise This...
“One surprise was the number of popular self-help books in the collection, and...”
– Excerpted from Inside David Foster Wallace’s Private Self-Help Library by Maria Bustillos
a-comp-radio: One Month and 34 Songs Later →
a-comp-radio:
It’s been exactly one month since we launched a-comp-radio.com!
Thank you for listening, and thank you for your encouraging words of support.
Our goal here isn’t to create an online radio station for everyone, but rather to make something that a handful of people might really, really love. To…
March 2011
3 posts
“He compares capturing the sounds of speech to what it’s like when standing on...”
– Re. poet Lauren Graham in “From poverty to poetry” by Marga Lincoln
September 2010
2 posts
“If bin Laden did not foresee all this, then he quickly came to understand it. In...”
– Excerpted from Ted Koppel’s Nine years after 9/11, let’s stop fulfilling bin Laden’s goals
“If you believe housing resembles a luxury good, then you’ll end up thinking...”
– Excerpted from David Leonhardt’s The Bears and the State of Housing.
August 2010
1 post
“For the first half of the 20th century, he said, expectations followed the...”
– Excerpted from David Streitfeld’s Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth, Analysts Say
June 2010
2 posts
“I quite agree that much of the book will seem coarse, rude, bad-tempered,...”
– Excerpted from Edward Abbey’s, Desert Solitaire.
“Researchers say there is an evolutionary rationale for the pressure this barrage...”
– Excerpted from Matt Richtel’s Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Price.
May 2010
1 post
“‘We have learned something important since the days that I served in...”
– http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html
December 2009
2 posts
“10 Commandments of the Intrapreneur:
1. Come to work each day willing to be...”
– Excerpted from Ben Casnocha’s “The Intrapreneur’s 10 Commandments” at http://ben.casnocha.com/2009/11/the-intrapreneurs-10-commandments.html
“Truth is a difficult thing. Just a few centuries ago, the smartest humans alive...”
– Excerpted from Luke Muehlhauser’s “On Seeking Truth” at http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=3173 via http://ben.casnocha.com/2009/12/quotes-of-the-day.html
November 2009
2 posts
“WSJ: How does the notion of aging and death affect the work you do? Has it...”
– Excerpted from John Jurgensen’s “Hollywood’s Favorite Cowboy” at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574529703577274572.html
October 2009
22 posts
tylerknott:
“The Wolves(Act I & II)” a Bon...
“8. Start with Something Minimal
Lots of founders mentioned how important it...”
– Excerpted from Paul Graham’s “What Startups Are Really Like” at http://paulgraham.com/really.html
fred-wilson:
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zep cover) -...
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve...”
– Excerpted from Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement address at http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
“I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been...”
– Excerpted from Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement address at http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
“On September 7th, one day before the...
“Essentially, Twitter left a ball and a stick in a field and lurked on the...”
– Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter | Magazine (via fred-wilson)
“Mr. Volcker’s proposal would roll back the nation’s commercial banks to an...”
– Excerpted from Louis Uchitelle’s “Volcker’s Voice Fails to Sell a Bank Strategy” at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/business/21volcker.html
“In the psychologist’s version, the good life is won indirectly. People have only...”
– Excerpted from David Brooks’ “Where the Wild Things Are” at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20brooks.html
“Important new businesses are usually some kind of hack. The established...”
– Excerpted from Paul Buchheit’s “Applied Philosophy, a.k.a. ‘Hacking’” at http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/10/applied-philosophy-aka-hacking.html
“He explained that “carry trade” would be a more accurate description of what...”
– Excerpted from Philip Greenspun’s “How Wall Street is making its billions” at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/10/17/how-wall-street-is-making-its-billions/
“War is obsolete,” [Ted] Turner said. “The last time someone surrendered was...”
– Excerpted from Brett Pulley and Anita Sharpe’s “Turner Lost CNN, Fonda, Fortune, Feels ‘Like a Dummy’” at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=afyLWnoS2WlA