Land O Links
"Education in the light of present-day knowledge and need calls for some spirited and creative innovations both in the substance and the purpose of current pedagogy" -- Anne Sullivan Macy, tutor of Helen Keller.
* Stockton, Calif., just became the largest U.S. city to ever file for bankruptcy. The invaluable Atlantic Cities site rounds up some numbers behind that situation. Pay special note to these two: $17 million -- amount the city pays annually for retiree health care; $26 million -- amount of city's current budget deficit.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/06/bankrupt-city-numbers/2394/
* Long Beach City College is going out on a limb when it comes to assigning high school grads to remedial courses: It is using the students' actual grades in high school to determine who needs the help. Imagine that, relying on grades. Apparently, the placement test used to slot students is not exactly useful. Bridge has written extensively on the college remediation issue.:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/remediation_placement_alternat.php
* Sea levels are rising along the East Coast faster than in other parts of the globe. (It has something to do with currents and something called "static equilibrium processes.") Dislodged East Coasters might want to consider Michigan -- we have miles and miles of shoreline:
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1597.html
* A visual reminder of just how segregated the Metro Detroit area remains:
* Michigan is No. 8 in the land on the surplus it sent to the federal government when comparing taxes paid vs. federal wealth transfers. The Economist judged this measure over a 20-year period, 1990-2009. In that time, Michigan was helping to subsidize large swathes of the South:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/08/americas-fiscal-union
* "(F)rom December 1, 2011 through June 1, 2012, 85% of the dollars spent on presidential ads by four top-spending third-party groups known as 501(c)(4)s were spent on ads containing at least one claim ruled deceptive by fact-checkers at FactCheck.org, PolitiFact.com, the Fact Checker at the Washington Post or the Associated Press."
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