Category Archives: Etc

Here's a nice grading puzzle, smaller versions of which sometimes come up in law school exams: How should you deal with students who make mistakes about basic facts that are not directly relevant to the question:

Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk: “If only we had forgiven Iraq for 9/11”,

I have now received three (3) student papers that discuss Iraq's attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. All three papers mention it as an aside to another point. I've had two papers on the virtue of forgiveness that argue that if we had just forgiven Iraq for the 9/11 attacks, we wouldn't be at war right now. I just read a paper on the problem of evil which asked why God allowed “the Iraq's” to attack us on 9/11.

The thing that upsets me most here is that the the students don't just believe that that Iraq was behind 9/11. This is a big fact in their minds, that leaps out at them, whenever they think about the state of the world.

I have an easy commute. Were it not for the need to get the kids handed off to school, my morning transit to work would consist of a short walk.

Some of my students have it tough: they drive from pretty far away — and have to fight some pretty nasty traffic unless they leave earlier than anyone would want to.

But that's nothing compared to what these kids do to get to school.

What would be the most unattractive job in the regular economy? I'm not talking about the objectively least-well paid or statistically most dangerous, or most unpopular (car salesman?). I mean, what job would you least like to have. No fair saying subsistence farmer in Darfur either — I mean in the US (or other developed economy).

For me, I think the worst job I see around me easily has to be toll booth attendant: Breath fumes all day. No real human contact. Uncomfortable reaching. Half in and half out so your body is a mix of too hot and too cold depending where and when. Much worse than the worst job I ever had (for a week) of (attempted) selling books by phone.

What's your worst nightmare of a job?

A woman refused a flight attendant's demand that she drug her toddler to stop him saying “Bye, bye plane” over and over again. So the Continental Express attendant kicked them off the flight.

I'll bet many travelers have fantasized about making a noisy kid near by disappear, not to mention the ones who kick your seat. But few would want it carried out in practice. And to demand the parent injure the child's health? That's appalling.

YouTube – NJ Gov. Jon Corzine's Seatbelt PSA

[I'm in Italy until late Wednesday, so I queued up a few posts to cover while I'm away. This is one of them.]

St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell decided to leave journalism and go teach at a historically black college in order to “give back.” The results are sobering: Part One, Part Two, with Part Three due on May 27th.

Spotted via South of the Suwannee.