For many years the United States high schools and education plans have been coming under fire.  For one reason or another, no matter where you looks, both private and public high schools have been taking it on the chin when it comes to test scores, college prep, safety, cleanliness, and whatever else you can throw at it.  Well, today the AP put out a story about just this topic.  In the story, Bill Gates is quoted several times, and one of the lines says

"He said high schools must be redesigned to prepare every student for college, with classes that are rigorous and relevant to kids and with supportive relationships for children."

While the high schools of the USA do have a duty to prepare kids for college, I think their top priority should in fact be teaching the basics needed for life.  Not everyone is made for going to college.  For whatever reason, be it money, ability, drive, or desire, many will never attend college.  Gearing schools to prep kids for college is simply not realistic and potentially more dangerous than have an unstable education system. 

If you went, think about what you learned in college, and how little this information has effectively transferred into the "real world."  Sure, you learned how to be more organized, how to juggle multiple things at once, how to be more mature, more prepared (now all of this obviously doesn't transfer to everyone), but that is all just a byproduct of going to an learning in an institution of higher learning.  The basics you learned in high school were the building blocks for living your life, college is more of a specialized education, usually with a specific target in mind.  If you follow Bill Gate's advice, your high school is not longer a stepping stone to the next part of your life, it is a mini college, with a specialized education in getting everyone to a place where not everyone is going. 

I think there is a happy medium that can be reached.  A selection of high school curriculm that will allow kids to manipulate their basic schedule much like in college.  This schedule can consist of basic core classes, and then electives.  Some kids can load up on more classes if they would like.  Basically it begins to prep kids for college with scheduling and options, but doesn't put the kids who do not intend on going to college in a corner.  Obviously this is not the only option, and may actually be a bad idea if you ask someone else.  But it is a start. 

Anyhow, enough of a rant.  article: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050227/ap/d88gh7do0.html

Last year, Jason Giambi showed up to Yankees training camp 20-odd pounds lighter and attributed his sudden, dramatic weight loss to "not eating fast food."  It was suspected at the time (and is now all-but-certain) that his weight-loss was simply a result of quitting steroids.

Now, in a near identical story, Ivan Rodriguez showed up at Tigers camp 20 pounds lighter!  How does "Pudge" explain this sudden, dramatic weight loss?  Why, eating better, of course.

Juan Gonzalez reports to Indians camp tomorrow, Rafael Palmeiro is due in Baltimore's camp soon.  If those two lost weight in the off-season, the whole lot of 'em need to get together and write a weight loss book.  Most people would love to have this incredible diet success.  I have the perfect title, too: Canseco Wasn't Lying!

So, we first had a thread debating about Lindsay Lohan's fake boobs...  Then we had a thread about Paris Hilton... Well, in a strange culmination, thanks to Paris Hilton, we now have Lindsay Lohan's Cell # that we can call to see if her boobs really are fake, and even more, to see is Kelci's Aunt actually did the surgey. 

No Joke, this is her real number:  347 596 **** or send her an email at ****@tmail.com

Oh, and if you want to talk to Mark Cubanstein about having Elliott Play his stunt double...

Mark Cuban 214 621 ****

##Edited because of better judgement, apparently the celebs aren't to blame for the fact that Paris Hilton is an idiot, Basically it appears that T-Mobile has some security holes to patch, but if you want the numbers and email, not too hard to find on the Internets.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3ph.htm

I have a wacky idea for a new piece of software and I'm sure I'm not the first one to have thought of it.  I haven't been able to find it on the 'net yet, though, so here it is:

I spend 10 hours per day sitting in front of a computer typing away like a madman.  I'm convinced that if I had a keystroke capturing tool running in the background that after a few weeks of work, a report could be generated analyzing my most common key patterns, etc. and provide recommendations for shortcut keys, macros more.

So far I've only found KeyLogger, but it doesn't provide analysis, just reporting on what your family is up to:

http://www.mykeylogger.com/keylogger/keylogger-features.php

What's your most inappropriate mental connection?

For instance, whenever I hear the Johnny Cash song "Ring of Fire" I will forever think of Christmas time.  This is solely because Nate & Alex used to "work" while playing a toboggan racing Flash game for hours & hours at a time, with a MIDI of "Ring of Fire" looping incessantly in the background.

And please, no Bull jokes -- unless you are Bull, then it's fine.

I never thought I'd see it, but Paris Hilton's friend is starting to appear all over entertainment shows & internet ads.  Paris Hilton's claim to fame is pretty pathetic, but now we're all gossiping over her friend's social life?  This is yet another item in a long list of head-scratchers that makes me wonder who or what drives the Entertainment News Machine.  Clearly it is more than one person's job to decide who's interesting or who's beautiful, but where does the impetus come from that causes every outlet to push chum like Paris Hilton or Paris Hilton's friend to the top?

Perhaps this is simply a case of groupthink gone haywire.  If one show covers a story and a second network decides to take a cue from that, I can see how a third show might copy the second and so on and so on, until we return to the front of the pack.

This reminds me a lot of the political echo chamber of TV talk shows.  One person says something somewhat interesting or unique and it's repeated a million times until it becomes "the truth," even though it's completely faulty.  Take for instance the many Iowans who voted in the Democratic primaries.  After voting, a large number of them said something along the lines of: "I didn't vote for John Kerry in the primaries because I like him -- I voted because I think he's more electable."  In the days of The Big 3, an idea could get bounced around like this without nearly the same effect.  But nowadays, hearing a slogan or idea repeated on 10 different channels, day after day, the sheer volume of this garbage seems to permeate our good senses.

The NY Sun has an interesting article on George W. Bush, here is a fascinating excerpt:

Here is a perfect picture of the patronizing sneer so many "superior" people direct at the president, straight from the front lines of the Washington social scene. "At a dinner party in Washington," the reporter reads, "composed mainly of opponents of the war and the administration, [the president's policy was,] as usual with this class, the subject of vehement denunciation." After a while, a lone dissenter (just one!) gets up to say something in the president's defense: "However deficient he may be in the head, he is all right in the heart."

This is the presidents's champion talking, remember.  Anti-war and anti-American sophisticates are positive that the president is an amicable moron at best. Most won't even be that generous. But this particular "dinner-party in Washington," with its lone presidential defender, took place during Abraham Lincoln's administration.

Personally, I'm not sure whether Bush and Lincoln belong in the same sentence, but maybe time will tell otherwise...

Read the article

Google Maps are in Beta now and the functionality / usage is pretty much what you'd expect.  But the "How'd they do that?!" aspect is awesome.  This is the first killer DHTML app that I've seen which actually has a use beyond novelty effect.  The seemless user interaction is probably the most impressive part.  You feel like you're using a Java Applet, but without the crushing load time.

Here's  a great technical breakdown of the ins & outs of Google's latest offering:

http://jgwebber.blogspot.com/2005/02/mapping-google.html

Bull,

Would it be agreeable for you to dress as a stormtrooper and walk around on the national mall this summer and allow us to photograph the event?  How about begging at the 14th St bridge during rush hour while dressed in the armor?  I think this could potentially be one of the most wonderful things I could ever see, and I personally do not have the guts to do it.

I saw this on craigslist & thought it was worth passing on:

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/about/best/wdc/55354359.html

Congratulations to ShinyDonkey.com's cub reporter, Bull, for breaking yet another major story.  It seems Nar is finally parting ways with [the company] and Bull was once again the man on the scene, breaking the news on 1/31 with a vaguely worded eVite.

Shortly after Bull's announcement, Associant Holmes' press secretary issued the following statement:

"Young Bull recently parted ways with Associant Holmes Detectives, Inc. and appears to be doing very well for himself.  Thanks to the Associant Training Program, his Nar coverage continues to be top notch and his reporting vaguery is as unpredictable as ever.  Associant Holmes sends his regards and wishes Bull much success & cancer."

So earlier today Drudge posted a story of a purported captured American soldier being held hostage in Iraq with a gun to his head.  It was accompanied by a picture that you can see below.

I immediatly saw this and thought that the soldier looked very odd.  His head was too small for his body, and his clothes were ill fitting the way my old 12" GI Joe's clothing would fit.  I made several comments that he looked like some sort of a doll or action figure.  It even looks like he has makeup up.

Apparently someone else thought this and the following images were later posted.

So it looks as if Iraqi militants are now taking toys hostage.  Not only that, but they are using the toy's very own weapons to hold them hostage.

It looks like we need to call in G.I. Joe, because apparently Saddam Hussein has been replaced by Cobra Commander.

Beware of SPOILERS, if you haven't read the final Dark Tower novel (and care)

Stephen King released The Dark Tower VII, the final novel in the Dark Tower series, late last year & I was immediately struck by how much better it was than the previous two editions. This could be attributed to far fewer uses of the word "chap," but I tend to think the novel on a whole is the best one since Wizard & Glass.

Since I finished reading Book 7 a month or so ago, I've been reserving my judgment on the ending until I had some time to think about it. It was so startling & abrupt that I simply didn't know what to make of it.

Basically, the series ends with an epilogue where Roland easily destroys all of his foes, enters the Dark Tower and a large CLANG echoes through the valley.  This appears to be the end of the book.  I was really disappointed we didn't get to see inside the tower but I also never expected the tower to live up to the hype, so I felt it was an appropriate ending.  There is an afterword, though, where King speaks directly to the reader and says that he knows that readers won't be satisifed with that conclusion, but it is the right one.  He advises that if you really want to know what happens inside the tower and you feel that you must read on, he has provided another epilogue that picks up from the CLANG.  What reader would possibly close this book at this point?

Well, I decided to read on and was really getting into it again until Roland reached the top.  At that point (and I'm paraphrasing), it went something like this:

"At the top of the stairs, there was a door.  Roland reached pulled the door open but suddenly realized he'd been here before... but it was too late to stop and he found himself drawn into the darkness beyond the door, falling, falling..."

This nonsense is then followed by a few paragraphs of narrative that explain Roland has woken up at the very beginning of book 1, with the vague memory of a dream about the tower.

So I've had a month to dwell on it and I still have the same reaction:  ARGGHHH!!!

I really enjoy cyclical storytelling (a la La Jette / 12 Monkeys) but inclusion of that device seemed pointless.  We went through all of that just to find out that Roland is trapped in a time loop, doomed to repeat his quest countless times?  There is a glimmer of hope at the end as Roland now has a horn attached to his belt that he lost long ago, but this is just confusing, not deep or fascinating.  I guess we're supposed to think that he has learned to play his own song and not be drawn by the song of the Tower, but he's still on his quest, so what's the point???

In retrospect, I should have taken his advice & skipped the ending.  It's almost as if he included it as a kick to the crotch for those readers who have been hassling him to finish the series.  "You want an ending?  Take this, jerkass!"

Boston Sucks and always will!

It took them long enough to win a championship.

86 years of sucking and going no where is nothing to be proud of stupid Boston dick heads!