scott’s thoughts

What’s not “Real Food?” Anything that starts, ends or pit-stops through a lab for alteration is not “Real.” It’s pretty simple. These include items that have to tell you what they are by their name “Cheese Food,” for example, or “Blue Lake #5.” Or items that have hyphenated or otherwise connected, confusing or unintelligible descriptions: “high-fructose corn syrup” (despite the commercials where Geek gets Girl, this product isn’t a “Real Food” it’s “Real Science”), “texturized vegetable protein,” (vegetable protein is vegetable protein, it doesn’t need to have any further texture created), or partially hydrogenated oil (until you can show me how nature ‘partially’ hydrogenates anything, skip this one).

I've been paying a lot more attention to my nutrition lately and one theme that I see recurring (and that should be obvious, but is not always easy advice to follow) is to eat food that is Real.

Good, clear guide.

Come on, April 3! Is that the White Stripes?

Starbucks brewed coffee, 16 oz: 330 mg.

This is absolutely unbelievable. Considering a Mountain Dew -- the go-to drink when people need caffeine -- only has 54 mg of the stuff.

Essentially, then, one grande brewed coffee at Starbucks has the caffeine of 6 -- SIX -- cans of Mountain Dew.

This year of licensed irresponsibility, this two-semester recurring national holiday, was threatened recently in Utah by a Republican legislator’s proposal to do away with 12th grade entirely. The idea was advanced as a budget-cutting measure — a way to shave millions from the cash-strapped state’s expense sheet — and it called forth the sort of instant, intense hostility that often signals that an inspired notion, truly innovative, truly new, has, by some miracle, entered politics.

Love this NY Times piece on the "importance" of senior year.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

I've got my MasterCard standing by.

I don't know why school administrators all have to be overweight and bald. But it is true that we can't dance...

Gau was perturbed because she was seeing high drop-while-failing rates, low grades, and students showing up unprepared for her lecture-based World Lit class, which had anywhere from sixty-five to 150 students each semester and involved  two lectures each week. “When you have to do plot summaries in class, you risk losing the motivated and prepared students, who get really frustrated,” she says.

What I like is that they didn't just "put classes online." There is a clear process and a review of the data, as well as time for faculty to really sink their teeth into what they're expected to do.

Young people are walking into class with this technology in their pockets, and it's foolish to pretend that they aren't," Jenison Superintendent Tom TenBrink said. "So why not use the computers they're using as soon as our backs are turned?

This is just good comedy. The script needs some tweaking, but the transition to the Steve Jobs costume is classic.