Good riddance

Michael Bloomberg quits the Republican party. [via all sorts of people]

Which means that Republicans no longer face the prospect of coming up with excuses when Bloomberg's stupid nanny-isms result in stuff like this:

We regret that Wendy's cannot provide product calorie information to residents or customers in New York City.

The New York City Department of Health passed a regulation requiring restaurants that already provide calorie information to post product calories on their menu boards -- using the same type size as the product listing.

We fully support the intent of this regulation; however, since most of our food is made-to-order, there isn't enough room on our existing menu boards to comply with the regulation. We have for years provided complete nutritional information on posters inside the restaurant and on our website. To continue to provide caloric information to residents and customers of our New York City restaurants on our website and on our nutritional posters would subject us to this regulation. As a result, we will no longer provide caloric information to residents and customers of our New York City restaurants.

We regret this inconvenience.

Well, hey, they're just following their motto: "At Wendy's^®, we're unrivaled in our passion for giving people what they want — and uncompromising in giving people what they deserve."

"Giving people what they deserve."

Hi, Michael! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Think I'll go buy a couple of burgers.

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[via Lileks, who after musing on the law of unintended consequences, says "I’d love to see that concept extended to every – single – other – business in New York, and watch the entire island empty out."]

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 21:19:44 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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We know we're paying them, the question is, "for what?"

Whether students are underachieving, average, gifted, or in need of individual attention, parents should recognize their own and their children’s role in learning mathematics and achieving optimal success. They [parents] should know the specific academic standards their children are to meet at each grade level, and they [parents] should be able to monitor their children’s performance and provide extra help when needed. Parents should be responsible for obtaining information regarding their children’s progress and know how to interpret that information appropriately. Above all, they should encourage a positive attitude toward mathematics.

Parents are their children’s first teachers. A child’s early experiences with mathematics at home can provide an important foundation for learning the content standards for kindergarten (Saxe, Guberman, and Gearhart 1987). Parents and other family members can nurture and stimulate mathematics development in their children and, for many children, will need to be involved in their children’s mathematics program at all grade levels (Stevenson et al. 1990)

However, schools must take greater responsibility to support the early mathematics development of children who are less fortunate and do not benefit from an educated, supportive family environment. Such support may require after-school homework, transportation services to bring children to school early for extra tutoring, extended tutoring support, and similar kinds of programs. -- California Mathematics Framework 2005, Chapter 7

So lets see: It's up to the parents to be the "first teachers," to "know [...] specific academic standards, to "monitor their children's performance," to "obtain information" (and "know how to interpret" it!), to "provide extra help," and "to be involved in their children's mathematics program at all grade levels." Oh yes, and above all "encourage a positive attitude toward mathematics."

Catherine Johnson (who ferreted this one out) wonders:

What parent apart from a person working in a math-related field can do this?

And how many parents working in math-related fields can do this? Pedagogical content knowledge is different from domain knowledge.

Next question: are parents expected to be able to do this for every subject their child will be "learning" at school?

And while the parents are doing all this, the school is doing... what, exactly?

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 02:31:48 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Debasing language, corrupting discourse

Wretchard raises a question:

Now that the term "torture" has been put in one-to-one correspondence with such admittedly unpleasant activities as punching, sleep deprivation, a handkerchief pulled over one's face and loaded with water, searches by women upon sensitive Islamic men or the disrespectful handling of Korans -- what on earth do we call gouging people's eyes out?

Cynic that I am, I've long wondered how the members of the "pomo community" would react if they found themselves the objects of  some good old-fashioned line-'em-up-against-the- wall-and-shoot-'em repression. Godwin's Law (or maybe, The Boy Who Cried "Wolf!") in practice: When you label everyone who disagrees with you a "Nazi," what do you say when the real Nazis show up?

Meanwhile, "david t" at Harry's Place notes an unusual (not!) silence.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 16:11:58 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Stupid Stupid Stupid - Part 1

John Dvorak blames the lawyers:

...nobody, myself included, knows what to do with the code. It is practically useless.

If the lawyers did nothing, it would have languished as a curiosity with perhaps a few crackers developing some software with it. The end result would be a few cracked copies of DVDs running on a few computers here and there.

Because of the lawyers and the nasty letters, now everyone online knows how important this number must be. Boom! Now users get to work on it.

Heck of a job, lawyers.

He notes how the RIAA's anti-piracy campaign generated tremendous publicity for MP3s-as-music-storage-and-trading medium, and the subsequent decimation of the retail CD business.
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Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 14:51:15 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here, have some pretty colors...

...... ....... ......
(Use the source, Luke.)
more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 00:03:15 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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And while you're at it

So Walter Shapiro wants to repeal the second amendment?

That's o.k.  Commenter "rosignol" wants to repeal the first.
(From a discussion at Alphecca, where they're making a little list...)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 14:56:38 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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