Schools, Facing Tight Budgets, Leave Gifted Programs Behind

A friend recently told me that her experiences at the Johns Hopkins summer program for gifted students strongly impacted her academic development by showing her that its okay to be smart. My time in gifted programs in 4th through 6th grade and in similar programs in junior high were my favorite and most productive years of learning. The idea that everyone should strive for mediocrity is shortsighted and silly. Different people learn in different ways and at different paces, and to eliminate all of these programs in order to focus solely on One Child Left Behind-mandated testing is going to have lasting consequences in a country that is already struggling to keep its prosperity and relevance in a quickly changing world.

Tempt-Eeeng

Sometimes you see something you want to buy, and you just can’t come up with any way to justify the purchase, except that it will, for a limited time, be a new toy that brings geeky contentment. That’s how I’m feeling right now about the Asus Eee PC. What a great machine for traveling and…not a lot else. Hmm.

We’re really doing this?

We’re really having a news media field day about Obama’s “fist bump?” I refuse to talk about it here, except to say that the incident, like so many others, puts me in the mind of this slightly off-color Onion news report.

Braun: Mr. O’Leary, how can we in the news media do a better job of focusing on bullshit and really hounding candidates on these petty issues?
O’Leary: The fact is you’re doing a great job as it is. If it wasn’t for the media, there would be a lot less bullshit in these elections.

★★★☆☆
Review

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

The first Apatow film I’ve seen, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is about a guy dealing with an abrupt break-up with his TV star girlfriend of five years. He escapes to Hawaii, they run into each other, hilarity ensues.

There were many funny moments, and just as many pointless ones. Several of the supporting characters were introduced for unclear reasons (just to add some more quirk?) and didn’t go anywhere. Our hero Peter’s Hawaii fling, Rachel, never feels fully fleshed out, although she doesn’t lack for charm. Nice about the film is that none of the four main characters (Peter, Rachel, Sarah, and Sarah’s new boyfriend, Brit rocker Aldous Snow) is generically good or bad, but each has realistic motivations and individual personalities.

I am always impressed and amused with the degree Kristen Bell will allow her life to be satirized. In this film she plays an up-and-coming actor on a crime drama that is abruptly cancelled after three seasons. There is a particularly funny scene over dinner during which her character attempts to defend her decision to star in a ridiculous horror film about killer cell phones. “It was the right choice for me at the time,” she pleads.

Also amusing? Peter’s Dracula rock opera with puppets, in the vein of Avenue Q. But even with that, and with a few interesting bits of unexpected insight into the tribulations of an up-and-coming Hollywood star, the film didn’t reveal any deeper truths or lasting messages. It’s one of those romantic comedy-type films, set in Hawaii, and it doesn’t strive to be more. Which is fine, but in the end that’s all this movie turns out to be — fine.

Edit: I like the New Yorker‘s take.

There seems to be a lot of crossover between geeks/scientists, Ultimate players, and outdoorsy people. But on my BUDA Summer Hat team, the defining characteristic is medicine. About a third of the team works for or has worked for Partners, we’ve got one doctor, and a couple folks in med school. I feel very safe.

Distracting Miss Daisy

A British professor who works in both the US and UK makes the case that the overabundance of unnecessary and frequently contradictory road signs in the US actually contribute to traffic accidents and fatalities. In short, by forcing us to constantly look to signs for guidance (and to avoid penalties) instead of trusting our instincts and training (especially in adverse weather conditions), we are more likely to be distracted, confused, and unsafe on the roads.

Looking to the cold

It may be 100º here, but that’s nothing compared to what tempers are going to be come this winter, when people start worrying about home heating oil. In the Northeastern United States, over six million homes use heating oil. Last October, the average cost per gallon of No. 2 heating oil in Massachusetts was $2.32. At the end of the season, in March, that cost had risen to $3.81. How much do you want to bet that by next season it’ll be up to six dollars or more? I’m no expert, but I wonder if this is a looming crisis for the region, and one that Hugo Chavez isn’t going to be able to bail us out of.

Regression

Summer rudely interrupted our fun this weekend, with muggy weather and temperatures occasionally topping 100ºF just a couple days after Harvard’s commencement exercises were nearly rained out. We should be swimming and boating, but in reality we have retreated to our air conditioned homes and our television sets. Spy Pond is right down the road but, like most of the water around here, it is too polluted for safe swimming. But for that (and a place to store it), I’d buy myself a kayak. A sad waste of a precious weekend.

EZPass is insane

I discovered today that EZPass New Jersey, in addition to the monthly $1 service fee, also charges me a $1 monthly fee for the privilege of receiving an email reminder that my bill has been posted online. That’s really thoughtful of them. I know in these days of fuel surcharges and turmoil in the Middle East, the cost of sending an automated email alert is going up, and I’m glad they aren’t passing those increasing costs on to me, their loyal customer.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other peoples minds, imagine themselves into other peoples places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

— J.K. Rowling, an excerpt from the commencement address (video) she delivered a few hours ago here at Harvard.

Great expectations

I came into my new job not looking to get into any fights, turf wars, or political battles, but just to hunker down and get some stuff done. I’ve finally come to the realization that that sort of silly “can-do” attitude is going to get me exactly nowhere in this place. Three months to get a single server‽ So I’ve sat, twiddling my thumbs, when I guess I should have been fighting people instead of assuming they’d do the right thing.