Letters to the Editor
kostya
Published Letters: 15 Editor's Choice: 6
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RE: Finland v. Alberta
[Read the article: Bad schools, dumb kids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]jenny,
If I was a proud Albertan or Quebecquois, I'd be saying, "Damn New Brunswick, always bringing down the national PISA score!" Thank you for noting the good performance of the Alberta school system.
Math scores of 15-year-olds (international, all-Canada): http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html
Canada PISA 2000 with provinical breakdowns: http://www.pisa.gc.ca/pisa/brochure_e.shtml
Reading literacy -- Alberta noses out Finland for top spot; Math -- Japan wins, both Alberta and Quebec beat out Finland; Science -- Korea wins, Alberta and Quebec beat out Finland
Canada PISA 2003 (preliminary): http://www.pisa.gc.ca/brochur_e.pdf (see p. 5)
From the Canadian PISA 2003 Highlights publication:
"Among the 41 participating countries, students from only two countries (Hong Kong-China and Finland), outperformed Canadian 15-year-olds in mathematics...Only Finland outperformed Canada in reading, while four countries had higher average scores in science and problem solving (Finland, Japan, Hong Kong-China, and Korea)."
For Finnish readers, see Finland PISA 2003 (final): http://ktl.jyu.fi/pisa/PISA_2003_-RAPORTTI.pdf
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Something's up
[Read the article: Bush on Rumsfeld: Because I said so]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]With the Throw-Donald-From-The-Train Movement stalling, the possibility arises that Dick and Karl plan to stick to their script for getting Republicans elected in 2006. The question is, how much the global population will put up with six months of flooding the electromagnetic spectrum with high-alert crawls and bejeezus-purging pronouncements? Bombing in Iran? Further military mobilizations? Made-up allegations? Perhaps Rice will even attempt to match Powell's performance at the UN.
If there is any genius in all this, I can't see it. We know Iran has a huge natural gas resource, but that doesn't seem to have the immediacy of Iraqi oil. Instead, it seems US foreign policý is a slave to short-term political objectives.
It's like watching Carrie Fisher's head rotations in the Exorcist; you see it, but it violates all natural laws. We can only hope a quesioning Father Karras will emerge from the Republican ranks and administer the final rites that send these Satanic beasts back to Texas.
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Great subject, though!
[Read the article: "United 93"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sorry, Stephanie, you had to waste time with this stinker, but I appreciate the heads-up. I would not give up hope that a good 93 movie will eventually get made; it's a great dramatic subject and in the hands of a modern Orson Wells or Alexander Dovzhenko could be the film of the decade. United 93 should rather be seen as part of an emerging 911 genre. At this point, producers still feel it risky to go much beyond a syrupy propaganda exercise, nor should we be disappointed that it revisits the material of a recent made-for-cable movie. I've not seen either film, but I suspect the denouement comes with either a slo-mo montage of the brave passenger charging (Let's Roll!) the terrorists in the cockpit, or an embunkered Dick Cheney, having given the shoot-down order, bowing his head and clenching his fists, hating the decision he has just had to make (even if he knows it was the right one, because it likely has saved many more lives). Snore. Script writers worth their salt need to entertain alternative versions of the tale, which offer, if nothing else, better pacing possibilities and some new ideas.
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Put him on Colbert Report
[Read the article: A Democrat knocks Colbert, says Bush "deserves some respect"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is ironic that the whip's job involves keeping other's toeing the party line, or is it just that Mr. Hoyer is confused about which party he works for? There's only one way to get to the bottom of this -- and that is to get him on the Colbert Report.
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"The U.S. media"
[Read the article: Lapdogs]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To paraphrase Clinton, I guess it depends on what you mean by "the." Basically, you have content-driven or advertising-driven models in publishing. The advertising-driven model has been in ascendency for several decades now. In magazine publishing, jump-the-shark moments include the point at which Red Herring got so heavy with announcements that airline check-in personnel started asking if you'd like to check it through rather than bring it into the plane as carry-on, or the point where the once-hip Wired started to run Hummer ads. Once a publisher betrays allegiance to the readership, the magazine suffers lasting or fatal (as in the case of RH) damage. Newspapers have been losing readership for years, so increased reliance on advertising has been the obvious path to goosing the bottom line. Look what happened in the newsrooms of nationally respected papers like the L.A. Times, and you can imagine what it's like in the small paper chains (mostly real estate and car sales). Or take what has happened to free-lancer writers. It used to be a mainstream would pay $10,000 + expenses + photographer on a feature story. Now it's bring your digital camera and $1 a word -- and your editor is 19-year-old human furniture. Most tv companies in the US have never faced such hard choices as the mediums ad-driven-ness is explicit. What is new is the little yellow line on Monday Night football -- now zip-code- or even viewer-specific advertising can be insinuated digitally into the programming. Rather than (still Tivo-over-ridable) commercial breaks, advertising is stirred into the content programming.
In other words, the Chinese walls that once protected creators of content have come down, and much to Boehlert's chagrin, the countervailing force to balance the need to suck up to advertisers has yet to emerge. Moreover, there has never been such good times for advertisers as today.
Everybody wants in. People can submit or reject particular advertising by the goods, services and ideas they choose to consume. As they do, adverisers can now narrow their focus to small groups and even single individuals. Duke Cunningham is a shining example of how ideocasting by motivated lobbyists can produce spectacular returns. Indeed, advertising is not just good enough to sell people on a war, it can sell a new one every election cycle.