It’s a nice sentiment about love, just very poorly executed.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
School of Fail: Get It Together, Vandals!
School of Fail: Get It Together, Vandals!:
It’s a nice sentiment about love, just very poorly executed.
It’s a nice sentiment about love, just very poorly executed.
Award-winning book-burning hoax saves Troy, MI libraries
Award-winning book-burning hoax saves Troy, MI libraries:
The Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide agency has won a gold prize in the Effie awards for their hoax "Book Burning Party" campaign, which is credited with saving the public library in Troy, MI. Michigan's extreme austerity measures and collapsing economy had put the library under threat, and the town proposed a 0.7% tax raise to keep it open. The local Tea Party spent a large sum of money opposing the measure on the grounds that all taxes are bad, so the Burnett campaign reframed the issue by creating a hoax campaign to celebrate the library's closure with a Book Burning Party a few days after the vote.
The outrage generated by this campaign was sufficient to win the day for the library, as Troy's residents made the connection between closing libraries and burning books, focusing their minds on literacy and shared community, rather than taxation.
BOOK BURNING PARTY
(via MeFi)
The Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide agency has won a gold prize in the Effie awards for their hoax "Book Burning Party" campaign, which is credited with saving the public library in Troy, MI. Michigan's extreme austerity measures and collapsing economy had put the library under threat, and the town proposed a 0.7% tax raise to keep it open. The local Tea Party spent a large sum of money opposing the measure on the grounds that all taxes are bad, so the Burnett campaign reframed the issue by creating a hoax campaign to celebrate the library's closure with a Book Burning Party a few days after the vote.
The outrage generated by this campaign was sufficient to win the day for the library, as Troy's residents made the connection between closing libraries and burning books, focusing their minds on literacy and shared community, rather than taxation.
Troy Public Library would close for good unless voters approved a tax increase. With little money, six weeks until the election, facing a well organized anti-tax group who'd managed to get two previous library-saving tax increases to fail, we had to be bold. We posed as a clandestine group who urged people to vote to close the library so they could have a book burning party. Public outcry over the idea drowned out the anti-tax opposition and created a ground-swell of support for the library, which won by a landslide.
BOOK BURNING PARTY
(via MeFi)
Poem which uses all 100 Scrabble tiles
Poem which uses all 100 Scrabble tiles:
From the year 2000, Ben Engelsberg sez, "Mike Keith forumlated this brilliant poem using all 100 scrabble tiles for each of 6 verses in iambic pentameter."
A Scrabble-Tile Poem
From the year 2000, Ben Engelsberg sez, "Mike Keith forumlated this brilliant poem using all 100 scrabble tiles for each of 6 verses in iambic pentameter."
A Scrabble-Tile Poem
UPDATED: Scottish town council shuts down 9-y-o girl's wildly popular school lunch blog
UPDATED: Scottish town council shuts down 9-y-o girl's wildly popular school lunch blog:
A nine-year-old girl in Scotland has been ordered to abandon NeverSeconds, her wildly popular blog, which features photos and commentary of the food served in her school. The blog began as a writing exercise undertaken with school permission, and was an implicit critique of the nutritional value and quality of the food. Over time, its proprietress Martha Payne branched out into raising money for school meals in east Africa. She became a minor celeb, with coverage in newspapers and blogs, and attention from celebrity chef and school food campaigner Jamie Oliver. Yesterday, she published a post called "Goodbye," in which she explains that she has been ordered to cease blogging by the headteacher, and expresses sorrow that she won't be able to continue her project. Her father clarifies that the shutdown order came from the local Argyll and Bute town council.
Here's what Payne wrote, followed by some words from her dad:
Payne's blog inspired correspondents from schools around the world to write in with their own photos, and was a burgeoning nexus of a real community of interest among children. It's a terrible, stupid thing that Argyll and Bute council did.
Girl banned from taking photos of school meals for hit blog
Update: The Argyll and Bute council have rescinded the ban. The Guardian's Peter Walker reports:
Payne's supporters have been tweeting photos of their food in solidarity with young Ms Payne, using the #mylunchformartha tag.
A nine-year-old girl in Scotland has been ordered to abandon NeverSeconds, her wildly popular blog, which features photos and commentary of the food served in her school. The blog began as a writing exercise undertaken with school permission, and was an implicit critique of the nutritional value and quality of the food. Over time, its proprietress Martha Payne branched out into raising money for school meals in east Africa. She became a minor celeb, with coverage in newspapers and blogs, and attention from celebrity chef and school food campaigner Jamie Oliver. Yesterday, she published a post called "Goodbye," in which she explains that she has been ordered to cease blogging by the headteacher, and expresses sorrow that she won't be able to continue her project. Her father clarifies that the shutdown order came from the local Argyll and Bute town council.
Here's what Payne wrote, followed by some words from her dad:
This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.
I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I’ll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don’t think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary’s Meals either.
Goodbye,
VEG
Hi,
Veg’s Dad, Dave, here. I felt it’s important to add a few bits of info to the blog tonight. Martha’s school have been brilliant and supportive from the beginning and I’d like to thank them all. I contacted Argyll and Bute Council when Martha told me what happened at school today and they told me it was their decision to ban Martha’s photography.
It is a shame that a blog that today went through 2 million hits, which has inspired debates at home and abroad and raised nearly £2000 for charity is forced to end.
Payne's blog inspired correspondents from schools around the world to write in with their own photos, and was a burgeoning nexus of a real community of interest among children. It's a terrible, stupid thing that Argyll and Bute council did.
Girl banned from taking photos of school meals for hit blog
Update: The Argyll and Bute council have rescinded the ban. The Guardian's Peter Walker reports:
Roddy McCuish, the council leader, told BBC Radio 4 that he had ordered an immediate reverse of the ban, imposed earlier this week. He said: "There's no place for censorship in Argyll and Bute council and there never has been and there never will be.
"I've just instructed senior officials to immediately withdraw the ban on pictures from the school dining hall. It's a good thing to do, to change your mind, and I've certainly done that."
It marks a complete reverse of the council's position earlier this morning, when a statement directly attacked the NeverSeconds blog, set up by Martha just six weeks before as a writing project, for "unwarranted attacks on its schools catering service which culminated in national press headlines which have led catering staff to fear for their jobs".
The statement added: "The council has directly avoided any criticism of anyone involved in the NeverSeconds blog for obvious reasons, despite a strongly held view that the information presented in it misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils. However, this escalation means we had to act to protect staff from the distress and harm it was causing."
Payne's supporters have been tweeting photos of their food in solidarity with young Ms Payne, using the #mylunchformartha tag.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Lessons of the Kobayashi Maru
It always surprises me when students are willing to spend more time figuring out how to cheat than they are on actually learning the material.
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