Things that make you go WHAT

[sunnyskywalker]

Teen Barista sues Starbucks over boss's demands for sex Starbucks says she and the guy concealed the "relationship," so it's totally not their fault. Apparently even McDonald's handles this sort of thing better (not that that's saying much, mind... "But everyone knows he's a pervert, so don't be upset if he gropes you!" is not a good start).

Why

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Can't it be both? Though it looks like where Texas goes, others follow... I was sad to see that my state's brokeness means less corrective balance in the textbook market. Fail, California, fail. I also want those unemployment checks they've owed me for three months.

[4thofeleven]

My friend got a kindle a few weeks back, but she only uses it to read public domain books she can get for free. Amazon's ebook system is just too much of a mess to deal with.

Huh. Cameron's been going on about Avatar for years, so I was a little confused as to how an idea he's obviously been thinking about for so long proved to be pure distilled cliche... Guess it wasn't, he just decided to reduce it to cliches for some inscruitable reason.

I suppose one should be grateful that the Texan textbookers at least conceed that expanding civil rights was a good thing...

[sunnyskywalker]

My grandpa got me a Nook for Christmas. It just arrived so I can't report much yet, except that the library science student in me cries at the deplorably inadequate search functionality. (What do you mean, I can't search by author? And in what universe does Frankenstein belong in the Social Sciences category?) I like the option of downloading free samples before shelling out, though - it's almost like being able to flip through it in the store.

I figured Cameron's problem was coming up with an idea in high school and then not improving it, but apparently not. Maybe he thinks his audience is just that dumb? (Or, given the amount of thought he put into Na'vi nipples, maybe he thought this was an improvement.)

Expanding civil rights proves to the masses how magnanimous white Texan men are. *sigh*

[deaka]

Tobias Buckell does sound pretty awesome. *adds to reading list* And the Project 880 version of Avatar is one I would have been a little more willing to see. I've been avoiding the version we got because, well, Fern Gully.

And it boggles my mind that these guys have that kind of power, but not, I think, for quite the same reason as the guy in the quote. His evaluation criteria alone is bad enough, but that line about majorities? And the stuff in the article about playing up conflict with Islam? It's all scary stuff from someone in their position.

[sunnyskywalker]

Maybe if we get enough people to buy Ragamuffin and Sly Mongoose, the series will get renewed! (I can be optimistic, right?) He was working on a fourth book called Duppy Conqueror when it got canceled. How could a book with that title not be awesome? (The new book he's working on sounds cool too, though. I would like both.)

The Texas textbook guys sadly prove to me that all those movies where we're going, "No way could these idiots be in charge of this company/secret organization/evil empire. They'd have been fired ages ago for total failure" are in fact accurate depictions of reality.

You know, if people can put together fantasy sports teams and fantasy movie recastings, why not fantasy Boards of Education? I nominate Ursula K. Le Guin, Debbie Reese, James Loewen, Catherine Kudlick, and Louis Warren for starters. I'm sure I can think of many more qualified candidates. I bet we could even find a good candidate pool in Texas.

[jehnt]

Oh yeah, Texas is aaaaaalways having textbook issues. And it sucks since Texas is one of the biggest buyers of textbooks, so basically whatever Texas wants in the textbooks is likely to be in the textbooks for the entire US. But speaking as someone schooled in the Texas public education system, there ARE a lot of good teachers out there who point this out to students and point out some of the textbook biases. Not all of them, of course, but some.

And huh that Tobias Buckell person's books sound pretty interesting. Putting them on the (disgustingly long) to-read list.

[sunnyskywalker]

California has its own massive education problems too, in all fairness (like right now, being FLAT BROKE). But I'm glad to hear that there are good teachers! One always hopes, but it's good to have confirmation. (And it is a tough job, so I don't necessarily blame the teachers who just can't spend tons of time doing extra research to correct the book. They got stuck in the same system, after all...)

They are fun books.