Mac users stoic in the face of swine flu

Suddenly, this Mac vs. PC ad has taken on a whole new subtext.

special session coming; 3,000 to 5,000 layoffs possible

Governor Gregoire's going to call a special session to deal, among other things, with the prospect of massive education layoffs.

Gov. Chris Gregoire wants state lawmakers to return to Olympia for one day to pass bills they dropped when they adjourned in the wee hours Monday morning....

[Speaker of the House Frank] Chopp, a Seattle Democrat, said he’s open to a special session that gets loose ends tied up quickly. He indicated there are just a couple bills that need to be done, including one on deporting immigrant criminal offenders that could save $8 million a year and – more important – a bill on school levies....

The bill would let districts collect the full measure of school levies already approved by voters, but most districts cannot collect more than 24 percent of their operating revenue from levies.

The bill raises it to 28 percent temporarily, allowing $68.6 million more to be collected locally. Olympia would collect $3.3 million, North Thurston $2.1 million and Tumwater $890,000.

The bill's potential to stanch the bleeding has kept several districts from initiating their RIFs. And if the bill fails?

The state Superintendent of Public Instruction's office thinks 3,000 to 5,000 teachers could lose their jobs. The Washington Education Association (WEA), the state teachers union, predicts 6,000 in public schools and higher education could be notified of layoffs.

"It is going to be very tough," said WEA spokesman David Phelps, calling it the worst teacher cutback in the state in 30 years.

David Phelps, Undersecretary of Understatement.

North Thurston: let the voters decide

Although I teach in the Olympia School District, I live within the confines of North Thurston SD. This absolutely bewilders me:

[T]he governor claims that Seattle schools could collect nearly $14 million, Tacoma $1.7 million and North Thurston could bring in $2 million.

The North Thurston School District disputes the governor's estimate, but said even if the governor's math is right they would not plan on collecting the cash.

District spokeswoman Courtney Schrieve said taxpayers approved a levy expecting to pay a certain amount and taking more out of their pockets now isn't fair.

"We just don't feel like it's the right thing to do. Even though we're having to cut 65 staff positions," Schrieve said.

It isn't fair only if the voters don't approve of the increase--and when the last levy passed, we had no idea a $9 billion shortfall was in the works.

Why not commission a poll and find out what the voters want?

revised threat level diagram

From bottom to top, least threatening to most threatening. Use in case of swine flu, earthquakes, the apocalypse, terrorism, zombies, etc.

(And what an etcetera!)

"We will find the truth. We will fully investigate."

[via Ed Brayton]

Olympia School District RIF update: April 27

Due to the potential for changes coming in the anticipated extra legislative session, the RIF has been suspended. The latest email explains:

Passage of a state budget
The legislature passed the state budget on Saturday.  The District is currently reviewing the fiscal impact of that package.  Here’s what we know today:  The Senate budget, which was used to make initial budget projections, would have meant a reduction of $4.2 million in state funds to the Olympia School District.  The final budget appears to reduce state revenues to the Olympia School District by approximately $3 million.  The overall budget shortfall for the District looks closer to $2 million based on complex collections rules regarding local levy funding. 

Passage of a measure allowing districts to lift their local levy cap
The measure allowing school districts to lift their levy lid did not pass prior to the end of session.  This legislation would allow the Olympia School District to collect up to $1.5 million more in voter-approved funds for next school year.   It is possible a special session of the legislature will be called to consider this and other measures.  The OSD will closely monitor any decision to call a special session and the subsequent fiscal impact any new legislation would have.

We have until May 15th for a final RIF decision.

Added: The Bethel School District sent out 220 RIF notices. Ouch.

the case of Aaron Vargas

Recently, I had blogged about the National Forensic League's March/April resolution, "Vigilantism is justified when the government has failed to enforce the law." This weekend, a visitor to the blog sent me a story of her brother, Aaron Vargas, who will soon stand trial, accused of murdering Darrell McNeill of Fort Bragg, California.

My brother was recently arrested for killing the man who sexually and psychologically abused him for 20 years. Many others in our small community were abused. Victims, and a former wife of the abuser, went to the police but not investigation was done, only a report was filed. The abuser abused his own children. He was involved in Big Brothers and Boy Scouts. His "little brother" was a victim, abused for 5 years and then harassed. [The victim] killed himself three years ago. A second victim also killed himself. My brother was stalked and harassed by his abuser. The abuser would show up at his house and ask to see his baby and to babysit. My brother quit his job because he was stalked at work. I launched a website for my brother www.saveaaron.com. I'm trying to get the word out about his case and this issue of abuse and the system failing the victims.

According to the local paper, Vargas shot McNeill with a muzzle loader, and made no attempt to flee or resist when arrested a while later. The paper notes that McNeill was suffering from Parkinson's and had lost ownership of his home.

I can't vouch for all the claims in the story above, since they were sent to me by a total stranger. If true, they illustrate the pain of abuse compounded with injustice, the difference between vengeance and retribution, and the dilemma society faces when a victim feels forced to take the law into his own hands.

Put in Aaron Vargas's place, I wonder what I would do. Honestly--and fortunately--I can't say.

waiting for the pandemic

Swine flu.

It's now a "public health emergency," having sickened hundreds across North America, leading to roughly 86 deaths in Mexico. Events in affected regions have been postponed or canceled--schools, shops, churches, offices shuttered to keep exposure at a minimum. In our area, authorities are already considering their options, which seems wise, given that cases have been reported in neighboring British Columbia. (Sensible advice is found here. Panicking won't help, but it might be wise to make sure you have enough around the house so could stay home for a few days.)

A few years ago, when the avian version was in the news, I blogged about how it could precipitate a change in the way we do education.

I enjoy teaching in a traditional classroom, with all the advantages and difficulties of seat time and face-to-face instruction, and I'm sure those who are entrenched in that format aren't going to let it disappear without a fight. The technological capability is there, though, waiting for the right social and political context. (As a hypothetical, think how readily people would accept online instruction in the advent of an avian flu pandemic.) When it happens, will you be ready?

I am.

inside an information sweatshop

Rick Reilly of ESPN sees how much he can make answering questions for ChaCha.

They came as fast as I could answer. I began to sweat. I was Lucy working the chocolate-factory conveyor belt. Questions fell to the floor as my mouth filled with unchewed answers. In a three-fingered bowling ball, which fingers go in the holes? (Jeez, people!) What's the longest cricket game ever? (Couldn't find it.) More sweat. Anyone got a ShamWow? I hit "abort." Bad idea; black mark on my record. Five minutes, no dimes. $0/hour.

I hit "away" under the status bar so I could rest. Next to being Terrell Owens' publicist, there can be no more stressful way to earn a living.

I wasn't a very enthusiastic guide after that. I made $3.80 total and received a quality control rating of 70%. That's a C-minus.

Low hourly wages, no health insurance, high risk of work-related injury. Welcome to the sweatshops of the Information Economy.

WIAA approves shot clock for boys

Dribble dribble dribble outside the arc... gesture toward the key... dribble dribble, pass, dribble dribble dribble dribble... crossover... dribble dribble dribble... duck in, duck out, dribble dribble dribble... pass, post up, face the basket, pivot, pass... dribble dribble dribble dribble outside the arc... pass, pass, pass, penetrate, kick out, dribble dribble dribble back toward the halfcourt line... escape the trap, dribble dribble... pass, dribble dribble dribble around the arc... gesture toward the baseline... pass... turn away from the defender, wait... dribble toward the key... pass, pass, dribble dribble dribble...

Those days are over.

After shooting down measures at least twice in the past, the Representative Assembly of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association not only passed a shot-clock amendment, it did so overwhelmingly, by a vote of 42-11.

Starting next season, every high-school boys basketball game will have a 35-second shot clock. The clock will be reset when a shot hits the rim.

Via Dr. Pezz, who explains the change as a generation thing. We've come to expect speed in professional and college hoops, and now we'll get speed in the boys' preps game. (Girls were decades ahead on this one.)

Up-tempo, at long last.

Dribble dribble pass shoot miss tip tip rebound clear pass dribble dribble dribble lay-in score!

license to vegetate

James Hanley on teaching at the college level:

I keep trying to figure out why teaching is so exhausting, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

1. The brain uses a tremendous amount of energy, approximately twenty percent of the body’s total. As a teacher/scholar you’re thinking nearly all the time, which explains why sometimes when I come home I can’t muster the energy to do anything but sit on the couch and watch Scrubs....

2. In teaching you are always “on.” This point was made by a local elementary teacher. And I think it’s true. In class (12 hours a week), I am always on stage, performing....

3. In teaching you have constant deadlines. 6 classes per week = 6 deadlines per week. Add on deadlines for a variety of other things, and it’s a bit wearing. Having one big project with an important deadline is, on the whole, not as draining as having non-stop small overlapping deadlines....

I’m not looking for sympathy, just trying to understand why this nice mostly desk job with flexible hours and summers “off” is, nevertheless, so utterly exhausting that all my colleagues look like zombies right now.

Agreed on all counts. As a high school teacher with five classes, in a normal week I spend about 23 hours on stage, and the rest of my free time, even when watching the Mariners on a Saturday night, thinking about teaching, like my mind is Windows and all my processing power is being sapped by programs running in the background.

I'm just waiting 'til the day I can upgrade my brain.

what is today's style?

Today's style is nerd chic.

Slender jeans, V-neck sweaters, collared shirts, sexy-but-smart (or smart-but-sexy) spectacles, electronic accessories of all stripes, dress-casual shoes. (A DNA tattoo? That's just taking it too far.)

It feels good to be a nerd.






[162nd in a series]

Olympia School District RIF update: April 24

Since yesterday's budget announcement, the situation on the ground appears to have changed, likely for the better. From another District RIF update email:

Earlier today the legislative leadership released a preliminary state budget proposal. Although it continues to contain significant cuts to K-12 education, in combination with other proposed legislation to be considered this weekend, the state budget proposal appears to be better than the worst case planning scenario.

As a result we will not be issuing RIF notices next week and there will be no 4:00 email containing a RIF number.

We will be watching the legislature closely as they complete their work on the state budget. Until the state budget is finalized, we are not certain as to what extent a reduction in force may be necessary. If needed, we will re-schedule the RIF meetings as indicated in our earlier communications.

Looks like the pre-RIF notice I received in today's mail is already obsolete.

close to the worst case

The Senate and House compromise budget is ready for debate in both houses.

Should it pass, and be signed by Governor Gregoire... well, let's just say it isn't the worst case scenario, but it's close.

According to Gregoire's proposed budget, last year the state spent 732.9 million on Initiative 728; The Olympian says the compromise budget slashes $600 million from "class size funding," which I presume to mean I-728.

82% gone.

In the Olympia School District, that would equate to roughly $3.25 million. The District had estimated that the worst case scenario, a $3.7 million cut, could require the elimination of 37.5 FTEs, or full time equivalencies--teaching positions. A little math, and the current estimate falls a bit to 33.

This is highly speculative and subject to change. I'm emailing Jim Crawford to find out if my estimates are based on correct assumptions. If I'm wrong, I'll be sure to correct this post.

I really hope I'm wrong.

hope for cinema

The Onion's heading to Cannes this May, and what a fantastic year it could be.

The competition features a murderer’s row of European provocateurs, including new films by Lars Von Trier (Antichrist), Gaspar Noé (Enter The Void), and Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon). Longtime Cannes favorites like Pedro Almodóvar (Broken Embraces), Alain Resnais (Les Herbes Folles), and Ken Loach (Looking For Eric) will also be competing, as well as a diverse selection of Asian masters like Park Chan-wook (Thirst), Tsai Ming-liang (Face), and Johnnie To (Vengeance). There are only two American films in competition, but they’re both doozies: Quentin Tarantino’s WWII epic Inglourious Basterds and Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. And oh yeah, Jane Campion (Bright Star) and Elia Sulieman (The Time That Remains), too!

I'd put the italics back in, but I'm too dizzy with excitement.

Olympia School District RIF update: April 23

Pre-RIF notices are heading out to the yet-unknown number of Olympia teachers, starting today. Via the District's communication team, in email:

This afternoon, letters will be mailed home to teachers who have been identified to receive RIF notices. These letters are being mailed to homes in order to honor the intent of the collective bargaining language that notification not be made at school sites. We will also follow up with an email message to all teachers at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 24th. This email will indicate the total number of teachers from the seniority/experience list that will be receiving RIF notices. Actual RIF notices will be delivered to teachers beginning Monday, April 27th. [emphasis added]

All teachers who receive information that they will be affected by the RIF should plan on attending one of the following meetings:

Elementary School Teachers
Monday April 27th Knox Board Room 4:00-5:00

Secondary School Teachers
Tuesday April 28th Knox Board Room 3:00-4:00

As you may already know, in the pessimum outlook, 37.5 positions would be eliminated. The House and Senate have decided on a budget, but haven't released the details; regardless, Governor Gregoire will have the final vote on any education-gutting about to take place. (Reason for pessimism: the sales tax boost proposal went down in flames.)

If you know a young teacher in any district around Washington, give them a hug, now.

House, Senate agree on slashed budget

The House and Senate have reached budgetary accord.

Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate have reached agreement on deep cuts in funding for public schools, higher education, health care and other state services totaling nearly $4 billion.

The agreement was announced moments ago and details are still coming.

Details. We all know who lives there.

Update: As the article expands, we get this juicy quote:

"There are a lot of cuts that we made that rip the hearts out of all of us having to make them," said Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Write your own punchline.

mix it up

Last night the M's beat a pretty good Tampa Bay team behind spectacular pitching by Jarrod Washburn. How did that happen? USS Mariner's Dave Cameron explains:

He threw a 91 MPH fastball with hardly any movement at all (upper right corner), he threw an 89 MPH fastball that rivaled Brandon Webb’s sinker for movement, and he threw everything in between. There’s so much variation in velocity and movement that the pitch description algorithm kind of threw it’s hands up in the air and went on strike.

Just on his fastball, we’ve got a lot of four seamers, a few sinkers, a couple of cutters, a pair of splitters, and a few that are just generically labeled fastball because they don’t fit into any of the aforementioned categories. That doesn’t even include the change-up, some of which are probably actually sinkers, and move like his fastball just with less velocity.

Oh, and he also threw two distinctly different breaking balls, just for good measure

In other words, there was a party on Jarrod Washburn's mound, and every pitch type was invited.

Click through to see the pitch F/X chart that proves Cameron's point.

cinematic archaeology

Warner is beginning to release obscure films from its vault, Mark Harris reports.

The recent launch of the Warner Archive Collection could well portend a revolution; it's DVD on demand, a way for Warner (and, one hopes, for every other studio) to make movies available without spending the $75,000 to $100,000 it costs to release an old title into an ominously contracting marketplace. Here's how it works: Go to the archive and browse the titles. Click on the ones you want, and for $19.95 apiece, they'll burn a DVD-R and ship you the movie in a standard plastic case with cover art. There are no extras except the trailer, if it's available; there isn't even scene-by-scene chaptering. But you will get the film, shown in the correct aspect ratio and with a picture and soundtrack of mostly high quality. Virtually none of the movies in this collection has been available on DVD before. Many never even made it to VHS.

Along the way, Harris finds some gems, some bombs, and some revelations:

An Enemy of the People (filmed in 1976 but not released until 1981) is your only shot to see Steve McQueen interpret Ibsen. Having watched the movie, I now know why. Still, I wouldn't have missed a minute.

The archive seems like a marvelous way to imagine cinematic counterfactuals. Perhaps other studios will follow suit.

For a more critical take, read John Falcone's article for CNET.

Olympia officially initiates the RIF process

We'd been hearing about it for weeks, and even received an email from District higher-ups warning that it was about to happen. Still, the official call to inaugurate an exploration of the RIF process, Resolution #451, hadn't been passed by the Olympia School Board of Directors, nor had its follow-up, the actual official setting-of-the-process-in-motion, Resolution #452.

Tonight, both were passed unanimously by a Board hamstrung by a depleted economy and a state budget outlook that, in the nicest possible terms, disconcerts. This means that a good chunk of teachers in the Olympia School District--the upper bound is probably 100--will soon receive a letter notifying them that the RIF is in play, and it may include them.

This will not be a pink slip. It'll be a warning that the pink slip virus is contagious, a painful and frightening but legally necessary step. If a district fails to warn an employee that their position is at risk, the district can't make the cut.

In tonight's freshly-released worst case scenario, Assistant Superintendent Jim Crawford estimated that in 2009-2010, the District will have to eliminate 37.5 FTEs, or Full Time Equivalents. That's based on the Senate budget, which would completely eradicate I-728 funds.

Will we get the worst case? Only the legislature--and Governor Gregoire--can say for sure.

You might want to help them make up their minds.