Archive for June, 2006
« Previous EntriesSuperman: Meh of Steel
Friday, June 30th, 2006Last night I went to see Superman Returns by accident, sort of. (I went to see Cars but it wasn’t playing — curse you and your occasionally-inaccurate schedules, Yahoo! Movies!) Having slogged all the way out to the theater, and having expectations that I’d see this sooner or later, I bought a ticket [...]
The Constitution, the Flag, and Fire
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006OK, nominally this blog is supposedly about education. But school’s out, I don’t have any urgent education-think to lay out there, and there are other issues that speak to me. Today it’s about the so-called “flag burning amendment”. For those who object to political content bleeding into “neutral” areas, I’ll quarantine [...]
The Rule of Law in Libraries
Friday, June 23rd, 2006I saw this piece on slashdot. It’s about a librarian (Michele Reuty) who is coming under fire for — gasp! — insisting that police follow the laws of New Jersey and obtain a warrant before rifling through the records of a public library. Despite following the policies of the library and, you know, [...]
Mainstream acceptance — woo hoo!
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006Well, I went away to Vermont for four days and nearly missed the telltale sign that my blog is Out There in cyberspace. That’s right, I got my first spam comment yesterday morning. I must be on somebody’s radar… Interestingly enough I was wondering if having comment moderation turned on [...]
Why “Mongrel Dogs”?
Saturday, June 17th, 2006First of all, as noted on the About page, the title of this blog comes from a Dylan song, “My Back Pages”, specifically
In a soldier’s stance I aim my hands
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not I become my enemy
In the moment that I preach
I like the euphony of the line. Also, it’s been [...]
Should the Net be like railroads or the interstates?
Friday, June 16th, 2006There’s a pretty decent explanation of the social history underlying the fight for Net Neutrality. This is going to be a big fight, and the author creates a useful narrative to understand it. As a teacher, I could wish for somewhat better editing and prose, but hey, it’s the summer and I’m off [...]
Snow Day
Thursday, June 15th, 2006Not really — not in mid-June in New Jersey — but I’m still learning WordPress and wanted to try uploading a picture.
If I’ve done everything correctly, there should be a thumbnail image above, which links to the full image. This one happens to have been taken from the Russell portico roof on 2003 December [...]
Old proof but rediscovered
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006I had to dig this out for a slashdot debate and remembered that I’m reasonably proud of it. It only relates to teaching in that I wrote it up as a handout for my AP Physics class. The basic idea is, it has been asserted that allowing an ice cube to melt in [...]
Advice to New Teachers
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006This is actually an ancient-of-days thing I wrote many many moons ago for a friend of mine who was beginning his teaching career. But even seven years later I think I have the same general opinion, so I’m offering it up mostly unedited.
Also, I want to try out multi-screen posting.
-=-BhpG
This is [...]
Shameless self-promotion
Monday, June 12th, 2006Who am I, what gives me the gumption to write this, and why should you care what I say about education?
Fair questions all. Let’s start with the last one first. Why should you care? I could offer up genealogies or testimonials or credentials (see below) — heck, this being education, I probably [...]