Also I got a cool action shot of Tito today:

A little something I put together to help spread the word. Donate to The Malala Fund!

Original comic here. Music by Bombay Dub Orchestra.

Are you kidding? I canot even begin to answer that question because I am so totally exhausted from teaching. It is one of the most stressful jobs on the planet.

In addition to pouty, arrogant, disinterested [...]]]> Recently someone on Reddit asked: “how is teaching stressful?” I thought I’d share my fun little response I wrote.

Are you kidding? I canot even begin to answer that question because I am so totally exhausted from teaching. It is one of the most stressful jobs on the planet.

In addition to pouty, arrogant, disinterested students (whose passion for learning — or at least passing standardized tests — you must excite or be condemned for being bad at your job), you will face endless bureaucratic mandates; mountains of tedious paperwork, related to student activities and not; gallons of emails, most of it nearly pointless, but just barely important enough to get you into big trouble if you delete it without reading it; years of “professional development” which often translates into mind-numbing seminars or lectures at best; meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting; conferences about young people who brag about how they hate you, your class, the curriculum, and everyone in the building, refuse to do work, but still deserve to pass the class; and a socio-political environment that demonizes you at every turn for not instantly remedying all of the nation’s ills yet provides almost no support for this herculean task.

Then there are the myriad challenges of preparing lessons, designing activities, teaching the actual class, and grading papers. Once you’ve finished all of that, you can write up your goal reflection for the year, finish your club sponsor duties (for which you may or may not get paid), and help struggling students after school. Also don’t forget to check your mailbox and remember to send those things to Central Copy before you leave, or else you won’t have them when you need them on Friday. Also that student who is doing the independent study project needs to meet with you.

Don’t get me wrong — I love my job and I cannot imagine doing anything else. I also love my district and I’m very lucky to have a supportive administration that respects me.

But it’s a job with stress like you will not believe.

The clouds of depression have lifted and I’m back, baby! This show is all about cheating in schools and fracking and robot therapists. Enjoy!

DS #83: Return of the Snot Burglar

Top 3 Links of the Week

The first is a 2012 speech in Brooklyn:

The other is ten years older, from 2002. Three hours of Cornel West on C-SPAN’s BookTV. (Alas, can’t embed this one.)

 DS #82: Trading Through [...]]]> This episode has a gross title, but it’s a real quote from Dark Pools, the book I’m reading right now about high-frequency trading. Also this episode: stabbing people with letter openers, psychotic robots that follow you into the bathroom, killer super weeds, and cinder blocks to the face! Enjoy.

 DS #82: Trading Through The Puke

Top 3 Links of the Week

• Herbicide-resistant “super weeds” increasingly plaguing farmers
• Dying veteran writes to George W Bush and Dick Cheney
• United by loss, Israeli and Palestinian dads call for a joint nonviolent intifada against occupation
• Take Action: Tell Obama not to appoint fracking advocate Dr. Ernest Moniz to Dept. of Energy
• Also: A Place at the Table

Current Events

• 14 adults “cured” of HIV
• New LBJ tapes: Nixon sabotaged Paris Peace Talks to win election
• Dying Veteran Tomas Young on DemocracyNow
• BBC documentary podcast: After Saddam
• Democracy Now: Iraq is a failed state existing in “utter devastation”
• Torture at Guantanamo
• The Geography of defense cuts (infographic)
• After three years, BP is finally headed to court
• Companies, environmentalists agree on new fracking rules
• Windfarm sickness spreads by word of mouth, Australian study finds
• India covering canals with solar panels
• Two boys killed in Afghanistan airstrike
• Wisconsin legislator admits to never having transvaginal ultrasound
• New Pope chooses “Francis” after the saint of the poor
• Pope Francis’ Junta Past
• CPAC’s “Trump the Race Card” forum derailed by an actual segregationist

Economics

• Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson: Let banks go bankrupt

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76NkzneZDJo

• Ha-Joon Chang on laziness and poverty
• Will robots create economic utopia?
• EU’s financial tax is likely to spur trading exodus
• American University law student: SEC will regulate HFT
• Australia finds HFT fears “overstated” but considers minimum hold time
• Demos Report: Cracks in the pipeline part two: HFT
• European officials cap banker bonuses at one year’s salary
• Vandana Shiva on Democracy Now
• Take action against super weeds: JustLabelIt.org

Education

• Value-added teacher evaluation models fail kids and communities
• 100 education experts write to the Independent to protest misguided UK education reform
• Black Agenda Report: Why isn’t closing 129 Chicago public schools news?
• Water into wine? Jeb Bush, Cheapistas, and education reform
• Scott Walker proposes expanding voucher school program in Wisconsin

Killer Robots, Etc

• General Stanley McChrystal on drones
• Pentagon robot hurls concrete blocks

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jvLalY6ubc

• MarionetteBot fuses Kinect and mannequins

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XAhcBpYqDg

• Tongue computers are just the beginning
• Print your own AR-15
• Dogs understand human perspective: Study
• First came the Russian meteor, now the meteorite deals
• JJ Fad: Supersonic

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3nPLoODtGU

Hip-Hop

Snoop Lion on Tavis Smiley (Sorry, the PBS embed isn’t working.)

To learn more, please read the Wikipedia Featured Article about Mr. Achebe. It is remarkably well-written.