|
|
|
May 23, 2007  The ultra-tasty Chinese bubble-tea shop Quickly, which has franchises all over the world, is behind the corruption scandal that has engulfed San Francisco supervisor Ed Jew. I guess I should redeem my completed Quickly VIP card, um, quickly, before the chain gets indicted or something. Also, this scandal reminded me of a similar bubble-tea shop flameout from a couple years ago, that one involving the Bay Area's venerated Q-Cup, many franchises of which, apparently, became Quickly stores. A tangled web of tapioca to be sure. May 20, 2007
Readers of this site may recall my nightmarish experiences at the hands of Teach for America in New Orleans. I have been trying to spread the word about the program's questionable success rates and destabilizing effect on the teaching profession ever since. It has just come to my attention that Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford education professor who has often been critical of the program, delivered a fairly strong smackdown in a recent study: She analyzed hundreds of thousands of student data sets and discovered that students bring taught by Teach for America teachers fare worse than the same students taught by certified teachers, and, in some instances, TFA teachers have a statistically significant negative impact on student performance. Of course, Teach for America is bigger than ever now, feeding as it does on corporate feel-good donations and presenting itself as a solution to struggling school systems.
(As a bonus, I should note that my search terms have perennially included some indications of what people are looking for relating to TFA, including "Teach for America nightmare," "Is Teach for America terrible?" and "Teach for America problem secrets.") May 10, 2007  It's only May and my vote for best album of 2007 is already in. It's going to be hard for anyone to top Teo & Tea, the latest offering from French electro master Jean Michel Jarre. Jarre's thirty-year output has included some of the greatest electronic masterworks of all time, so it's no surprise that he's still going strong. But the title track of Teo & Tea is a conceptual masterpiece, mostly instrumental but with a ice-cool voiceover and throbbing, propulsive beat that is already packing dancefloors in Europe. Americans have never quite gotten Jarre, which is a pity. Click here to check out the video for "Teo & Tea," it's a revelation. (For the uninitiated, Jarre is the son of Lawrence of Arabia composer Maurice Jarre... and Jean Michel has been married to Charlotte Rampling and Anne Parillaud, and engaged to Isabelle Adjani. Not bad.) |