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Archive for November, 2011

FAIL Vote

Posted in Humor, tagged on November 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Vote your conscience, America. Epic Fail: Cast Your Vote for the Top Fails of 2011  

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Occupy Anthem?

Posted in Humor, Politics and Society, tagged , , on November 30, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Like ‘em or not, this seems to capture the essence of the Occupy movement’s manifesto:

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The Biggest Difference Between High School and College

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , , , , on November 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »

For years, I’ve taught mostly high school honors classes and remedial college classes.  By a wide margin, the high school students are more literate, more creative, and more productive in every way.  What do they do that’s different?  They have already learned the key to success: self-motivation.  Most high school students are used to being spoon [...]

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The New York Times Admires Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy

Posted in Religion, tagged , , , , , , on November 21, 2011 | 9 Comments »

In a blog post last week about Mormons and the Civil War–focusing on the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Brigham Young–the New York Times mentioned this: Fascinatingly, Joseph Smith had prophesied in 1832 that an immense civil war would someday transform America, and that it would start in South Carolina. It is fascinating, isn’t it?  A couple [...]

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Defending UNLV’s New Freshman Orientation

Posted in Education, tagged , , , , , on November 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that UNLV will begin a new class next year, a required freshman orientation course.  The class looks like a seminar designed to acclimate students to college life and work, focusing on the purposes of higher education and the skills required to succeed there.  A local talk radio host ripped [...]

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The Kingston Trio Performs “M.T.A.”

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , on November 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I’m very grateful to have been raised by parents who clued me in to neat old stuff like this.

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The Biggest Difference Between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party

Posted in Politics and Society, tagged , , , , , , , on November 20, 2011 | 16 Comments »

I started my observations about these two movements a month ago with a point of conciliatory commonality–their shared opposition to undue influence by rich special interests in politics, whether left or right.  However, after two months of Occupy Wall Street, the most stunning thing about these two movements is how their core is starkly contrasted. Tea Party [...]

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The Oxford English Dictionary Has a Blog!

Posted in Language and Literature, tagged on November 17, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Doing some research this morning for an upcoming vocabulary assignment my classes are doing, I found that the Oxford English Dictionary has a delightfully logophillic blog, OxfordWords.  The most recent offerings appear to be about invented languages, word origins, eponyms, and the persistence of cassette tapes. Has this blog already been added to my link [...]

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Jeopardy! on DVD?

Posted in Humor, Random, tagged , on November 16, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Am I the only one who would buy episodes of Jeopardy! if they were released on DVD?  I think there must be a market for this. So what if we already know the answers and who wins?  There’s always plenty to enjoy and learn. It would be cost prohibitive, I imagine, to release entire seasons, [...]

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The Classic Mystery! Intro

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , on November 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Edward Gorey animates murder mystery cliches in these famous introductory scenes from the long-running PBS series, Mystery!  Alas, the truncated version they use now is little more than a pale shadow of this lively paragon of nostalgia.  

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Punctuation Riddle

Posted in Language and Literature, tagged , , on November 10, 2011 | 3 Comments »

This one was in Eats, Shoots & Leaves; punctuate such that it makes sense: Every lady in this land Has twenty nails on each hand Five and twenty on hands and feet And this is true without deceit  

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Radical New Facebook Philosophy

Posted in Humor, tagged on November 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I’ve been doing this all wrong.  I need to stop using Facebook to reconnect with old friends, get to know acquaintances better, and keep in touch with distant loved ones.  That’s boring.  From now on, I’m only going to friend freaks and morons–people whose wild and inane posts will entertain me far more than the [...]

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Voluntary Martyr Teachers

Posted in Education, tagged , , , on November 8, 2011 | 4 Comments »

In my first few years of teaching, I tried to be one those Hero Teachers–the guy who stays at work ten hours a day, who goes in sometimes on Saturdays, who takes tons of work home and grades while he tries to unwind at night. During that third or fourth year, a scary thought hit [...]

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Coldplay and Course of Empire

Posted in Arts, tagged , , , , , on November 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I really like this.  

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The Mysterious Religion of the Jaredites

Posted in Religion, tagged , , , , on November 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Updated 11/8 I’ve been reading Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon, which is a wonderful, wonderful analysis of that sacred text.  In its cornucopia of insight, though, one thing has jumped out and fascinated me more than anything else: Hardy shows that the Jaredites probably weren’t Christians. This might seem odd on the surface: [...]

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