An excellent film! (I believe this played briefly at the Orpheum) Available on DVD.
Shortly before World War II, a Jewish couple and their young daughter emigrate to Kenya from Germany to escape the Nazis. Not all members of the family are happy with this drastic change — but going home isn’t an option. Ultimately, they must all come to terms with a new life in a new continent. Director Caroline Link’s epic drama won the 2002 Oscar for best foreign film.
UPDATE: Interestingly, the University of Wisconsin Press published the autobiographical novel upon which the film was based.
Romance & The Internet
Valentine’s Day Cake @ La Brioche. It’s come to this…..
Tupperware on PBS
Fascinating WGBH special on Tupperware.
Here’s a site that sells retro tupperware.
Laptops in Schools?
Some school systems are starting to equip certain grades with laptops. This article describes a survey Maine’s 2 year old 7th & 8th grade program.
There are many challenges to successful technology implementations, including:
- Opportunity cost (dollars & time) What are we not doing when we’re spending money on laptops & overhead for them?
- Training & Support
- Things change fast, are we better off to support our student’s critical thinking, rather than the latest windows, mac or linux pc? (I think we are). These tools will change quite a bit by the time the students enter the workforce.
Google Bans Critical Ads
The Age: “Online search engine leader Google has banned the ads of an environmental group protesting a major cruise line’s sewage treatment methods, casting a spotlight on the policies — and power — of the popular Web site’s lucrative marketing program.”
Wasabi!
Dinner tonight at Wasabi on State Street. Excellent as always.
School Board Debate
Lee Sensenbrenner writes:
In a sign that this spring’s Madison School Board elections are being taken more seriously than in years past, the debate season has already begun and an independent Web site is tracking the candidates’ positions.
Whether the district will pursue another referendum to address its budget problems is certainly a leading issue, but candidates are also pushing curriculum changes to the front, as well asserting that board members have not been sufficiently independent from the district’s administration.
I’ll be posting video clips and mp3 files here shortly.
Watching the Jobs Go By
NY Times OP-ED Columnist Nick Kristof on the weakness in US science and math education.
Mr. Subbakrishna, a management consultant specializing in technology, notes that in his native Bangalore, children learn algebra in elementary school. All in all, he says, the average upper-middle-class child in Bangalore finishes elementary school with a better grounding in math and science than the average kid in the U.S.
Federal Red Ink
The Cato Institute published some very helpful (and illuminating) charts & graphs on the current federal budget.