June, 5, 2005 archives

this opinion piece from the los angeles times has the usual statement that “The nation — and California — will have to spend more on education, schools and personnel, but it also desperately needs a vision and a stable plan to guide this investment.” the article in general looks towards the finnish education system as a model to emulate.

of course, in finland they spend $5,000 per pupil, and in los angeles we spend about $7,000. professor grubb fails to mention that.

maybe the real solution is to prevent schools from purchasing any textbooks over 200 pages in length.

oil storm is a faux-documentary from fx that reminded me, at least viscerally, of the day after. it chronicles a series of events (hurricane, shipping accident, attack on infrastructure in saudi arabia) that send the price of oil up near $150 a barrel, and the price of gasoline of $8 a gallon. the whole structure of the movie is just really well done, and i think they made the right choice in not being over the top in pushing a particular point of view. it really does come off as a television news documentary from the future, albeit with a focus on the smaller players in the story than you might see in real life. (for example, the administration is represented by a couple of under-cabinet-level players, and the references to the president and cabinet officials is pretty fleeting.)

one can only hope that this ends up being as un-prophetic as the day after has.

i actually remembered to make it to the hope for firefighters event in downtown los angeles last week, unlike last year. i got there late, so i missed the competitions and my food choices were limited, but i still got some great food from one of the booths that hadn’t run out.

so in honor of that event, i’ve sent my monthly charity contribution to the los angeles firemen’s relief organization for the widows, orphans, and disabled firemen’s fund.

this weekend i’ll be participating in l.a. works day, and if you hurry, you can register. you can even get the registration fee covered by following the link on the front page there about joining the los angeles downtown news team.

as mentioned over on the blo.gs news page, i’m looking to get in touch with folks using the blo.gs cloud interface. so if that’s you, please drop me a line. thanks!