I made it out to see Captain America: The First Avenger last weekend. I enjoyed it. It was definitely a well-done origin movie, and while I haven’t seen Thor yet, it definitely seems like Marvel Studios has its formula down. The most important thing that Marvel achieved with Iron Man and Captain America is to […]
One of my goals for this year is to move a little bit beyond my own classroom this year and get more involved in the larger education community. I’m fortunate that there’s one excellent resource for doing so right in my hometown: Educon, the annual conference held at the Science Leadership Academy. This year the […]
As I write this Philadelphia is in its second weekend with a special curfew for teenagers. The curfew was instituted after the most recent spate of flash mob violence, and during the first weekend dozens of teenagers were arrested for violations. There were no major violent incidents, although one news report pointed out that almost […]
Couple of stories that connect to the riots in England, flash mobs in Philadelphia, and the general topic of law and order in the 21st Century. The New York Times reported on the transformation of Los Angeles’ police department. Former LA police chief Bill Bratton is now doing some consulting work for the British government, […]
Labour Party leader Ed Milliband gave a speech a couple of days ago about the English riots and how the government should respond. The full text is available on Labour’s website, and it’s worth a read. Milliband’s major proposal is series of hearings or town hall meetings or some other form of “national conversation.” I […]
Antisocial behavior and society’s response to it is kind of my theme for the next few days, largely because I’ve been trying to reflect on the recent riots in England and the British government’s response. Via Matt Yglesias’ blog I found this commentary on Bloomberg by Edward Glaeser. Glaeser argues that large social forces like […]
This post is discussing a bit of old news, but it may be relevant news in light of recent events. Over the weekend I came across this old post from Scientific American’s Bering in Mind blog. There are two parts to the post, and both are worth discussing. There’s a report on recent studies about […]
Nothing bothers me more than reading something and not feeling like I’ve learned anything at the end. I just had that experience with Phil Sheridan’s latest column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. To set up: The Eagles and the Phillies are the two most popular professional sports teams in Philadelphia. Five years ago, no one would […]
Friends of ours recently introduced us to the board game Ticket to Ride, and we liked it so much we immediately bought a copy. In the game, players must gather resources in order to build train lines connecting various cities. The longer and more difficult to build your route is, the more points you accumulate. […]
So, one day after extolling the benefits of my urban lifestyle, we drove two for two hours to Lancaster so that we could sit in a horse-drawn tour buggy for an hour. Due to a scheduling conflict, Alex missed her Girl Scout troop’s trip to Lancaster earlier this year, so we had promised her we’d […]