November 23, 2007
Defying Demographics
Defying Demographics: A look at University Park Campus School, a 7-12th grade school located in the poorest neighborhood in blue-collar Worcester, MA. Approximately 73% of students hover at or below the poverty line and 61% are minorities, yet over 80% go on to college and 99% pass the Massachusetts graduation exams.
The partnership between Clark University and Worcester Public Schools has created an environment so successful that a number of cities are looking to emulate it. Have they discovered the key to closing the achievement gap?
Do not try this at home!
Household Hacker offers a growing variety of bizarrely improbable or impossible "hacks" using household items. How many errors can you spot?
Saved By Jesus!
Saved By Jesus! Incrediable story out of the Arizona desert. I just feel really bad for the kid in all this. And wonder how both sides of the immigration debate will handle this.
A serious nocturnal photography habit.
Marty Ravellette
In 1998, he pulled a woman from a burning car. When I first saw him I was going through multiple cycles at a red light in heavy traffic and he was navigating a push lawnmower with no hands, or arms. Via con dios Marty Ravellette.
Buy Handmade
I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me. Why? Better gifting experience, better ethics, better for the environment.
Green Team!
Green Team! NSFW language, Will Ferrell and Friends.
Damanhur
The Temples of Damanhur. Behold the Eighth Wonder of the World (according to the Italian government). [Via Boing Boing.] [more inside]
ten second rule...
Raven and Jason live together in Vancouver's downtown East Side.
A touching short documentary about life on the edge.
Verity Lambert dies.
Verity Lambert dies. Verity was amongst other things the first producer of Doctor Who and essentially co-created the series along with writer Sydney Newman and the pilot director Waris Hussein. She would later have a hand in bringing everything from Minder to Jonathan Creek to the screen. [more inside]
What David Lynch, What?
gharbzadegi
"Fascism", in its current hyphenated repackaging, gets bandied about quite a bit these days. So, it may surprise you to learn that the populist appeal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad depends in part on a Persian concept, "gharbzadegi" ("weststruckness" or "occidentosis") whose roots are located in an Iranian adaptation of Martin Heidegger's proto-fascist concept of "The Darkening of the World" by the intellectuals Ahmad Fardid and Jalal Ali Ahmad.
Death Rattle
Can you say that again? you gurgled it the first time......Or it's simply the language of the zombies via, often full of groans. Since death rattle is a fairly difficult language to understand by word, it is common to understand through body language, and volume.
For example, a loud angry "Rahhr!" will usually mean "I'm going to kill you." A soft "Bhrr." with hands in front will usually mean "Please, don't hurt me, I didn't know she was your girlfriend."
But more commonly, over-used to describe movies or fading trends and Russian Death metal...Hear the Rattle!
...otherwise possibly boring FPP's on terminology.
But more commonly, over-used to describe movies or fading trends and Russian Death metal...Hear the Rattle!
...otherwise possibly boring FPP's on terminology.
Freeware Friday
Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw (previously), he of "Chzo mythos" and "Zero Punctuation" fame, has released a new game: The Art of Theft, a heist adventure in grand retro style.
it's RAAAAAAAID!!
The Ramshackle Joy of Home Recordings
The CBC's Stuart McLean (kind of Canada's Garrison Keillor) is obsessed with musicians' home recordings. He recently produced a show asking Canadian musicians to record songs in their own homes. The result is an enjoyable mix (direct link to MP3) of whimsical, occasionally experimental music.
unite against human rights abuse in the war on terror.
unsubscribe-me.org is not what you might first think it is from the name. (SL-non-YTP)
You didn't really want to eat today, did you?
Doctors remove a ten-pound hairball from an 18-year-old girl's stomach. It's still not the world's largest - that one came from a cow and weighed 20 pounds. And this homemade one doesn't count.
The Nickel-in-the-Slot Player.
On this day in 1889 the first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royale Salon in San Francisco. And the rest is history. Take a stroll through Wurlitzer's Jukebox Museum, and check out their 1950's promo film on jukebox manufacture: A Visit To Wurlitzer. Happy birthday, jukebox! [more inside]
Jellyfish swarm massacres unsuspecting salmon
Billions of jellyfish destroy a coastal fishery in Ireland. Next they will be attacking your children. Feel free to flee in terror...if you can.
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