Thoughts on the end of Graduate School

Is this thing still on?  So, I've been a wee bit busy lately, with work and school and family.

The good news is that I'm finally done with my Master's. It's been a long, difficult journey, but I'm glad I did it. I've also been blessed with tons of support from my family. 

I got a Master's in a different engineering discipline (Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering), so it's taken much longer to get through, but the extra challenge was worth it. 

When I started in 2011, there were many reasons I wanted to go to graduate school. In no particular order:

* I was disappointed in how things ended at Tulane. Working through your senior year in the Katrina aftermath with your professors getting laid off was no fun.

* More and more, a M.S. is the expected background for a professional engineer, especially if you're going to work on the most challenging project. See also the BS+30 possible pending requirement from ABET ( http://www.nspe.org/resources/blogs/pe-licensing-blog/why-it-important-raise-educational-bar-future-engineering ).

* In case the oil patch went to hell. All industries today are cyclical (except maybe the undertakers), but the oil patch is far more cyclical than most.  Boom times are really, really good and bust times are really, really bad. Feast or famine. In Fall 2011, oil was right at ~$100/bbl (WTI). Now, it's under $40/bbl. 

* Naval Architecture is just damned interesting and I've always had a fascination with the sea.

There were some semesters that were really tough. I'd be working 2-3 days a week down at a shipyard in Morgan City, the other days working in the CBD, then driving to UNO to take 2 graduate classes. Lots of running around!

There were also some annoyances. Problems getting advising  (4000 vs 6000 level classes). UNO still had some minor damage from Katrina (K+6 years and still no working water fountains at first). The state trying everything possible to screw with the school (axing the incredibly popular Tim Ryan, then being rudderless for years, then hiring Fos, who was OK, but no Ryan, then canning Fos...). Tuition, but especially fees skyrocketing every semester.  My total out of pocket went up >10% per year each year. UNO used to be an absolute bargain, but now it's merely affordable. 

Some of the cool little things:

* Taking classes beside my regulators. I got to work with folks from the USCG and MMS/BSEE. 

* Learning a new discipline and also taking classes in completely new things (I took a geology class for instance). ABET rigidly dictates undergraduate curricula, but is hands off at the M.S. level, so I had a lot of freedom to pick my own way through. 

* Labs are one of the things that a brick and mortar school still has over online programs. 

* Chevron had a little program where they would kick some money to UNO in order to offer 1 Petroleum Engineering class per semester. UNO has wanted to start a full department, but LSU always said 'Hell No!'. Anyway, most of the course was taught by an old drilling engineer who taught from a wheelchair. The crown block on a rig fell on him when he was younger. When he talked about safety, you listened. I also tend to deal with the 'Christmas Tree' & Up at work, so learning a little about the 'Downhole Stuff' (more colorful term is commonly used) was different. 

* After having to do a Lines Plan by hand, I have much more respect for the older draftsmen & engineers. Not an easy task.

* Probably my single favorite class the whole way through was Ocean & Coastal Engineering. Old professor who's very popular with the students, lots of Army Corps of Engineers manuals, and lots of jumping around. Also lots of lab work looking at modeling wave action in the small scale and Froude scaling to full scale.

Anyway, I loved it. I got out of my comfort zone, I was challenged to think, I'm glad I did it, and now I'm glad I don't have to go to class after work anymore. 

The Advocate: Cutting Class

The Advocate's multi-part special on higher education cuts in Louisiana might be the best thing in newsprint in New Orleans in quite some time.  While the Alabama Picayune continues cuts, The Advocate has done a nice job under Gordon Russel.

Part 1: Startling Cuts have transformed state universities.  Very good graphics.  

Part 2: TOPS Program.  

Part 3: Student Fees Skyrocket.  This one in particular hit home.  By the end of grad school, 40% of my out of pocket expenses were mandatory fees.  Tax credits, etc. usually only focus on tuition, too.  

Worth taking the time to read them all.  

UPDATE: This article focuses especially on UNO-

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/13656467-64/uno-struggling-to-recover-since-katrina

Higher Ed Meltown in Louisiana

First off, this email has been going around, relating to the possible merger of the schools of sciences and engineering at UNO:

Dr. Peter J. Fos, President of The University of New Orleans, is deciding right now on whether or not to merge the College of Engineering into the College of Sciences.  This merger will have a very negative impact on the engineering community for the following reasons: 

1.       The perception by the engineering community will be that engineering is no longer a priority for the university.  Until 1972 the engineering program was housed in a department within the College of Sciences.  The perception by employers before the creation of a School of Engineering was that UNO really did not have an engineering program.
2.       Parents will question the viability of the engineering programs at UNO once the news goes out that the colleges will be merged.  It is already difficult to recruit high school students to attend UNO, and the proposed action will make this task even more difficult.  The perception will be that UNO is “cutting” engineering.  We had this same problem when the last university administration proposed combining engineering programs into one general engineering program.
3.       While within Louisiana, Louisiana Tech and Tulane have combined engineering and science divisions, this action will have a huge negative impact at UNO.  Louisiana Tech, which has a College of Engineering and Science, took this action long ago as a strategic move to align the needs of the engineering programs with the mathematics, physics, and chemistry departments (they have chemical engineering).  There is still a separate College of Applied and Natural Sciences.  At Tulane the combination of engineering and sciences has resulted in a reduced emphasis on engineering.  All other engineering programs in the state are housed in Colleges of Engineering.
4.       The New Orleans area needs an engineering school located in New Orleans.

What can you do? 

1.       Contact Dr. Peter J. Fos, UNO President, and give him your opinion on this merger.  His contact information is:

a.       Direct Telephone 504.280.5536

b.      Fax 504.280.6872

c.       Email pfos@uno.edu

2.       Contact our local politicians as follows:

a.       Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans – 504.658.4800 or mayor@nola.gov

b.      John Young, Jefferson Parish President – 504.736.6405 or JohnYoung@jeffparish.net

c.       Senator Conrad Appel – 504.838.5550 or appelc@legis.la.gov

d.      Other local parish or state legislators who you may know

3.       Contact your company Human Resources Manager or Supervisor and express your concern to them and ask them to intervene in your behalf.

As past Chairman and Member of the UNO Engineering Advisory Board (comprised of every major corporation in the area) for over thirty-five years, I cannot stress enough the importance of your voice in this proposed merger. 

Sincerely,

Michael S. Benbow, P.E.

C.E.O.

M S Benbow and Associates

Direct 504.836.8976

The merger idea has been shelved, but the layoffs have now started and I'd like to add my thoughts as a current grad student.  

Everyone knows that Jindal has axed $700 million (and counting) from the higher ed budget in Louisiana.  This has hit all state universities extremely hard.  Even LSU has not been immune; LSU has shrunk from 33k+ students down to around 28k students, with hundreds of faculty departing.  Until this year, LSU faculty had not had a raise in 8 years.  Within the UL system, faculty haven’t had a raise in 7 years.  You’re not going to retain your best staff under those conditions, period. I highly recommend this piece from The Advocate: "Rising Tide".  It notes that LSU's out-of-state enrollment has plummeted, while Alabama's has soared.    
 
UNO has a couple of additional factors working against it.  First, before Katrina, UNO was 17k+ students.  After Katrina, they took an enormous hit in enrollment (the city’s population was halved for a long period after the storm). 
 
Second, the registrar had a policy of academic probation if students didn’t keep their grades up.  If they didn’t pull up their grades the following semester, they were banned from registering the next semester and were forced to reapply. This policy was on the books for decades, but was unenforced until recently.  When the new registrar announced that they’re following that policy to the letter of the law, they kicked 800 students out in a single semester. 
 
Third, UNO has implemented admissions requirements that aren’t terribly high, but Louisiana’s high schools (public, private, and parochial) aren’t capable of preparing them adequately. When UNO started requiring a 19 on the math portion of the ACT*, only 8,000 seniors per year in Louisiana were capable of meeting that.  Once again, that number INCLUDES private and parochial schools in Louisiana (which have substantial enrollment).  That’s the entire pool in the state that can meet that (frankly, pretty low) threshold.  If you want to be an engineering student, you’ll need to do much better than that to make it to graduation.  The biggest problem with the low pool is not necessarily the public schools in the Baton Rouge/New Orleans corridor; it’s the rural schools in Louisiana.  The math scores at the rural schools frankly suck (public, private, and parochial). 
 
With all these factors combined, the enrollment at UNO has plummeted from 17k+ to ~9k currently.  Applications have remained strong, but they’ve taken a few serious hits along the way. 
  
The state also has a lot of universities all over the place.  We spend as much money supporting universities in such metropolises as Ruston, Hammond, and Monroe as we do supporting UNO in New Orleans, yet the overwhelming majority of the state’s population resides in the New Orleans/Baton Rouge corridor. 
 
Jindal has, in essence, privatized the state university system in Louisiana.  Instead of fully privatizing them, there’s still state restrictions on the schools though.  The universities aren’t allowed to set their own tuition.  There are other restrictions, for example there are 9 semester hours of English and 3 hours of biology required for all students.  The average degree is ~120 semester hours; that’s 10% of the time at the university that’s dictated by the state legislature.  If fully freed from restrictions, UNO could probably survive on its own.  Also, keep in mind, as bad as it is for UNO, there are other schools in far more dire straits.  In the UL system, only Grambling has managed to balance its budget for the coming year.  LA Tech faces an even bigger deficit than UNO (nearly $2 million in the red at LA Tech for the current year). 
 
The previous university administrations had kicked the can down the road and met the previous budget problems with shifting reserve funds around and hocus pocus, without fundamental changes to the university.  In their defense, they were assured by the Jindal administration they wouldn’t have to suffer through the cuts year after year and it would pass.  So, they put bandaids in place.  Now the bandaids have burst, blood is gushing out, and the new university administration is desperate to stem the tide.  President Fos is a big improvement over the previous administrators and strongly supports science and engineering at UNO, but he doesn’t have a lot to work with at the moment
  
As both State Treasurer Kennedy and Clancy DuBos have recently said, UNO built a good chunk of the middle class in New Orleans.  Education, at all levels, is your primary investment in the future.  What’s going to happen next? 
 

The state has money. Oil prices are up and there's enough money for Jindal to hand out a $4m no-bid efficiency study. For that same amount of money, UNO could more than double the budget for the college of engineering.  

Long term, I'm actually fairly optimistic for UNO.  UNO is still a very good value, but tuition has gone up more than 50% since 2008 (and that’s before Jindal announced he’s allowing the universities to start raising tuition 10% per year to raise funds++). UNO’s out of state tuition is still less than in-state tuition at the California schools.  It offers in-state rates to certain out of state students with good test scores.  If UNO gets through the next few years, I'm optimistic that they'll start to put these problems behind them.  

I'm less optimistic for LSU and here's why: BR Chamber of Commerce plots the death of TOPS.  I've read 80% of LSU students are there on TOPS.  Under that Chamber proposal, if you look at the ACT statistics*, TOPS would be cut off from 89% of Louisiana high school graduates.  The Legislature has been plugging state Higher Ed funds into TOPS year after year to feed the monster, only to discover the following year, the beast is still hungry, partly because the state universities now have less state funding (quite the vicious circle).  Either late in Jindal's term or very early in Jindal's successor's term, TOPS is either going to need a substantial infusion of revenue or Pat Taylor's dream will slowly wither and die.  LSU will not survive the fall of TOPS, at least, not as a flagship university.  

__________________

* ACT Statistics for Louisiana in 2012 here.  Look through those numbers.  

++ I still have yet to see a list of "favored majors" under the WISE Act.  The WISE Act is still a very empty proposal thus far.  

A day of joy for a Tulane grad...

Zero student loan debt!  Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my interactions with older coworkers, it's astonishing how little understanding there is amongst their generation at what student loans mean.  There's a lot of misunderstanding at what tuition levels really are at universities (both over-estimating {Tulane has a VERY healthy 'discount rate' that makes the $50K+/yr. tuition more reasonable} and under-estimating {state schools are now beyond the level you can work your way through college}).  There's a lot of misunderstanding about how harsh repayment terms can be (look at these vultures).  

Student loan companies, like Sallie Mae, can go fuck themselves up the ass with a sideways pineapple.  I have a healthy math background and I got snuckered into a pretty poorly structured loan refinance.  I went from a bundle of 4 or 5 loans at 1% or 2% with a 10-year repayment period to a new loan at 6+% with a 20-year repayment period.  Once you get that higher rate and the longer term, you end up paying a boatload more in interest.  It's like the difference between a 15 and 30 year mortgage.  It was only after a couple of years and realizing, 'wait a minute, I should be paying more' did I realize I'd be taken.  If that can happen to a STEM grad, imagine how badly some poor Humanities major can be taken for a ride. 

Here's a Glenn Reynolds WSJ Op-Ed.  It leans too much on the unicorn of "online classes" as a solution, but it's food for thought.  

Valuing Education

With work and grad school, I've been pretty busy, but I've noticed a few things I want to highlight.

* In China, Families Bet It All on a Child in College 

* Seg Academies still going strong. One of my college friends went to a Seg academy.  One funny story: he didn't learn about integrals in calculus...  He learned about "anti-derivatives" (integration being a dirty word).

* Hyper-parents can make college aged children depressed-study 

* Cost of College: Who Can Still Afford State University? - WSJ.com (Related: Louisiana, after cutting more than half a billion dollars in funding to colleges, now has the lowest level of support to higher-ed in the South) {Worse than even Haiti}

* Poor Students Struggle as Class Plays a Greater Role in Success
* The New White Flight (Related: Asians and college admissions)

* The House that Calculus Built.  Stewart is now on the 7th Edition.  When I was in college, they were just adopting 4th edition.  It's not even a good textbook!  My high school book (Larson) was far better, but didn't cover multivariable, therefore most colleges don't like using it.
* Harvard Losing Out to South Dakota in Graduate Pay- Bloomberg 
* Pay teachers more, get better outcomes - LGM.  A revolutionary idea...  I like the idea that it's not the pay, per se, that gets the better outcomes; it's the idea that we're actually valuing our teachers and the pay is mostly a demonstration of society valuing its educators.  More good thinking from LGM.

I'll end with a story.  Pat Taylor pushed TOPS through the legislature after a big battle over cost (underwriting 100% of the cost for the first few years out of his own pocket).  An anecdote:

Pat Taylor was heading downtown for something.  His regular driver was running a little late.  Pat asked what was up.  The driver mentioned that he was studying for a final in a course at Delgado.  Pat told him to turn the car around and head back home, Pat paid the driver for the full nights work, told him to go home and study, and Pat took a cab instead.  

Pat really, really valued education for its own sake.  

Tulane plowing millions into football?

Cowen Pledges Greater Football Funding - The Hullabaloo. Excellent Article.

This is a curious little announcement. I've asked around and what the administration is thinking is they've done research. Their surveys indicate that there's a strong correlation between football programs and alumni donations. Good foobtall programs have a high rate of alumni donorship, while bad football programs generally correlate with poor alumni donorship. That's what I've heard from a couple of different sources on the administration's thinking. The overall plan is to pump up the football program (which loses a couple million dollars a year) so that it at least stands on its own feet and the halo effect of a better football team would pump up alumni donations. At least, that's the plan.

I'll add a few bits of history. Tulane was a founding member of the SEC. They left because "the board thought they could make more money as an independent, like Notre Dame."

Tulane also had Sugar Bowl Stadium (seating 80,000+), which they tore down and shifted over to the Superdome. That one is actually fairly understandable at the time. They didn't have the money to do the extensive renovations the stadium needed and there was this big, shiny new stadium downtown. Unfortunately, the Superdome is the absolute worst venue possible for a small football program. 20,000 fans (a good Tulane attendance figure) are lost in the cavernous, freezing cold stadium. Note that Cowen mentions a fund-raising drive of $60 million to build an Uptown stadium. From what I'm told, it would be ~30,000 seats and be situated one of three locations: wedged into the practice field area (behind Riley Center; tight, but possible), Audubon Park, or Uptown Square, which Tulane acquired about 6 or 7 years ago. We'll see how the neighbors react if they get the money lined up and want to start construction.

I know that Cowen isn't exactly on my Christmas card list, but take a look at the track record. When Cowen arrived at campus we had a Bowden-led football team with offensive genius of Rich Rodriguez calling a potent offense, the oldest degree granting college for women (Newcomb), engineering programs so old, they dated to founding of ABET (in addition to other, smaller academic programs eliminated in the Renewal Plan), and the Princeton Review ranked Tulane #31 overall. Now, we're ranked #51 (Tulane has griped and moaned about using Katrina-tainted data for dropping it out of the top 50 {well, what about the other 19 spots...}) and we're the only top 50 {51} school without an ABET-accredited program in Computer Science (go ahead and look it up for yourself). Even LSU has (finally) gotten their CS program accredited!

I really want Tulane to do well, but we'll have to see where things are headed. I just can't help wondering if this is really the best way to spend this money.

******************************
Here's Cowen's email:

Good Morning:

It has been about six years since Katrina almost destroyed New Orleans and Tulane University. Since that time, Tulane has not only survived but has reimagined itself and become stronger academically and financially. This recovery has not been easy, but the Tulane community was determined to move forward. We have made substantial progress in achieving our academic and financial goals, which have been the primary focus of our efforts since August 29, 2005.

We are now in the stage of our renewal where we can and should continue to focus on the development and success of Tulane Athletics. Next year we will once again field 16 sports teams, fulfilling the NCAA's requirement for competing at the highest level of collegiate athletics.

We have made major commitments to our baseball, basketball and volleyball programs, with a new practice and training facility currently under construction for the latter programs and beautiful Greer Field at Turchin Stadium for our baseball team. These improvements were consistent with the university's recovering finances after Katrina and were made with our academic priorities always in mind. We are proud of what has been accomplished in athletics given all the unprecedented challenges we faced. But the task is not yet complete. Our next goal, which will be the most difficult one to accomplish, is to build a consistently successful football program.

Our vision for football is a program that opens every campaign with the talent and resources to win our division and conference and participate in post-season games - as opposed to one that has periodic winning seasons, which has been the experience at Tulane for the last five or six decades. We will not achieve this overnight, but we must begin the journey for success right now with clear and unambiguous progress made every year, starting with this coming season.

An overview of the evolving plan to accomplish this goal is outlined in The Playbook. In the months ahead we will refine our plans as we marshal the resources necessary to achieve our goals. We will build a successful football program while adhering to Tulane's philosophy of enrolling student-athletes who desire a first-rate education. Our student-athletes are committing their collegiate careers to achieve at high levels, on and off the field, and our coaches will dedicate every bit of their talent and experience to help them in their quest.

For us to be successful, it will require a true team effort -- an effort comparable to what we did after Katrina when many naysayers around the country counted us out. The journey now begins; we hope you will join us.

Have a great weekend,
Scott

UPDATE- Changed capacity figure for Sugar Bowl Stadium.

News and Notes - 9 Jan 2010

It's damned cold outside. The thermometer on top the local charter school is still reading in the mid-20's. Here's some reading material for you as you sit around your house clutching your hot beverage of choice trying to stay warm.

College Football Coaches Face the Summer of '69. Fantastic article going through some college football history. About how coaches lost their dictatorial power and the racial struggles at the end of the 60's.

Very long David Simon interview. Worth a read. Can't wait until Treme.

China's Energy Solution: Ignore the Cost. China plans massive buildout of alternative energy, whatever the cost. China is forcing public utilities to buy renewable power at cost + fee basis. While "communist"-sounding, might actually be quite capitalistic by breaking the biggest logjam in financing and construction of new wind, etc. projects. Alternative Energy companies have a hard time securing financing due to the massive fluctuation in energy prices. Almost all alternative energy projects (wind, solar {very useful for peak power}) are economical at least SOME of the time. The trick is when energy prices collapse, they're left trying to pay off a massive initial capital cost. Cost overruns probably won't be that bad because the energy companies still have to front the money.

What's driving up oil prices (now above $80 on all indexes {WTI, Brent, Tapis, etc.})? Well, according to this article, it's the LACK of speculators.

Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell.

The Nightmare Life Without Fuel. Essay from 1977 by Isaac Asimov. I've been getting into a lot of classic science fiction writing recently and Asimov's stuff is really good and holds up well over time. I got more of the Foundation series for Christmas.

Drew Brees: Pro-Bowl Quarterback, New Orleans-lover, Philanthropist, and Washington Post Op-Ed writer.

And here's the best articles for last:

Village will not be moved. Isle De Jean, like many other small Cajun towns south of New Orleans, is slipping into the Gulf, but residents refuse to leave. Great read.

Recession fuels shift to public schools.

"Public schools play such an important role for our democracy as the only institution that serves all children," he says. "If you lose the people who have the power of choice because they have the resources and the information and the time to make a difference, it becomes a system that only serves people who have no other option. And that's a problem."

Profile: Hussain al-Shahristani - Times Online The most important man in the Middle East that you've never heard of. Tortured for 10 years at Abu Gharib, he's now the incorruptable man in charge of Iraq's oil. Reminds me of reading about Zaki Yamani in Saudi Arabia. Related: Oil Drum discussion of potential Iraq oil production capacity. Lots of caveats, but there's potential for a Russia-like situation to develop (poorly managed large fields turned over to IOC's with Superstraws resulting in a "new Saudi Arabia" almost overnight, thanks to lots of hard work. The photo near the end will bring a smirk to your face, too.

And ending with something fun: Looking for a way to stay warm? Try this:

Science Links of the Day - 23 Sept 2009

Start with a cool video:

An illustration of gyroscopic stabilization.

Secrets of the Gun that Shelled Paris. From an old issue of Popular Mechanics. Don't you wish newspapers and magazines covered science like this today?

RNA produced from "Primordial Soup". Wow. Maybe we can get some of that evolution around here: Too evolved for US audiences?

Costly [British] libel suits are stifling science. Perhaps the starkest indication that parliament needs to examine our libel laws is that American legislators are acting to block them. They recognize that free speech in America is compromised because US journalists have been dragged into an English libel court (so-called “libel tourism”) and forced to back down because of the high costs involved. Congress is considering a bill, which has already been passed by the state of New York, that would make English judgments on libel unenforceable in America.

Fined: for not producing enough garbage. Bike Mechanic Too Efficient. A standard monitoring tactic was used, but with no appeal process, there's an automatic fine for "green" mechanic.

"Catch more flies with honey than vinegar?" - Not so much: To get rid of fruit flies, which are so plentiful this time of year, fill a small dish with about a half a cup of cider vinegar, and add a drop of dishwashing liquid. The cider vinegar gives [off] fumes similar to spoiling fruit, which attracts the flies, while the dishsoap breaks the surface tension. Flies land, flies drown, no more flies! It works like a freakin’ charm, it does. Plus, there’s a morbid sense of satisfaction, seeing how many you can catch in a single day.

Synthetic Humans? On average, one-half of the nitrogen in a human body is synthetic, the product of one of a Haber-Bosch plant.

First ships navigate Northeast passage. 2 German merchant ships, escorted by Russian icebreakers, are navigating Europe-Asia shortcut. Could it be the first time in 5,000+ years the channel is regularly ice-free?

What does space smell like? After reentering the shuttle airlock, a strange smell lingers from space...

Niel DeGrasse Tyson takes on "Intelligent" Design:

Dead Tree Journalism

Finally got around to getting the Times-Pic at the house. Didn't have a place where I thought I could reliably get it delivered (Marigny, FQ, etc.), so it took a while. I figure now, though, I should support my local rag a place that still offers salaries, 401(k)'s, and health insurance for its workers.

Best part about dead-tree journalism? As Candice put it, "Not having to read the [Nola.com] comments."

One of the front page stories today worth reading is this bio of Paul Pastorek. I've been skeptical of Pastorek ever since I heard of the salary he demanded (a little south of $500K/year). Today's article sheds some light on his background and the end includes a classic little vignette that I wasn't aware of.

He called St. Tammany's academic performance "average, " noting that the system had little competition in one of the nation's lowest-performing states.

He then compared the district's schools unfavorably to KIPP charter schools in New Orleans, an affront to suburbanites' pride in the superiority of their schools.

"You're living in a wonderland here, " Pastorek said, noting the system's relative advantages -- affluent families and ample financing. "I challenge you to do this: Go see what KIPP is doing, and what kind of kids they're doing it with."

He had the balls to compare St. Tammany Schools UNFAVORABLY to ORLEANS PARISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS!?!?! I can imagine the howls St. Tammany residents made to that one. It's pretty true. St. Tammany Schools are propped up by the wealth of the district's population. There aren't as many students sent to M.I.T. and Harvard, to give just one example, as you'd expect for the 'best district in the state.' And yet, you St. Tammany residents love bragging about their school and putting down New Orleans Public Schools. Ah, the joy of watching them twist in the wind!


----------
*NOTE: The author is a proud graduate of New Orleans Public Schools.

Science Links and an Experiment

Why do ants never get in traffic jams? No overtaking, lots of tailgating, and everyone moving in unison.

Creationism's huge win in Texas. Creationists on state school board order watering down of Texas school books. Since Texas is one of the largest markets for textbooks, it's likely that every new science textbook in the country will have to be watered down to please creationists.

Where oil comes from. Instant refutation of creationism.

Cold fusion breakthrough? We'll see if it's science or pseudo-science. It's a Navy lab, so you can't just discount it immediately.

Nuclear power comes to Antarctica. Tired of lugging around lots of diesel, 1960's scientists turn to nuclear power for their scientific needs.

Photos from a guided tour of Chernobyl. Extremely cool. I'd love to tour Chernobyl one day. I like the part where he describes how the guide threw a shit-fit when someone put their cap on the ground (and hence picked up radioactive dust).

$200 garage-made space probe. Very cool project by a bunch of high school kids.

The internet. Represented as a subway map.

And now for the experiment of the day:
Cannonball thrown into a vat of Mercury

Will it sink or will it float? Here's your hint.

Dinosaurs running around in the Louisiana Governor's Mansion

Since Louisiana's governor is a nutjob who really believes in creationism and thinks Rush Limbaugh is a "great leader," here's a post dedicated to you, Bobby:

Bill the Science Guy takes on Pseudo-Science




I've actually felt a little guilty about not writing more about this earlier. Thanks Oyster, Maitri, et. al. for covering Jindal's anti-science agenda.

Links to peruse while waiting on Parades...

How to ensure a constant supply of bacon on hand.

3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Debtor's Prison. Wonder when someone will try to institute that in this country... Dubai, while you're at it, could you take care of this guy for us?

The Sean Tevis Bill could pose a big threat to future internet-based fundraising. More on Sean Tevis at Wikipedia.

Run a university that looses $200 million on mortgage backed securities and "running it like a business?" Need cash? Sue the alumni! Tulane sues Newcomb alumni, claiming copyright infringement for newly-registered trademark. Can we say, "Patent Troll?"

A bright side to the Financialapocalypse? Lawyers laid off in record numbers. Related: More "FDIC Friday" seized banks. Some more related: Laundering drug money? Yet more related: Tale from the Bush Recession. Very wise business advice: Never deal with someone you wouldn't work with over just a handshake.

Hipster movers. A checklist.

Court to kill exclusion rule? Despite Justice Scalia’s claims, police misconduct is rampant.

As bad as Louisiana's legislature is, at least they haven't pulled this. Yet. What qualifications does one need to be a member of the Tennessee House Republican Caucus? The ability to fall off a log and then claim it’s the fault of the log because real American logs don’t spin when a fat man stands on them?

The Broadmoor urban farmers featured in this week's The Gambit cover story. Great read.

For great local blog reads, check out some of the latest posts at The American Zombie and Oyster's profiling of how Jindal is pushing Creationism on Louisiana public schools and the economic effects. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Also, don't forget about Nagin's missing emails. Is this yet another time when Nagin = Our Bush?

And for one last link, the winner of the "honesty in advertising" award: "CAUTION THIS VEHICLE IS FULL OF POLITICAL PROMISES"

Can't Sleep. Clowns will eat me.

Up real early this morning (partly because of this), so I'll post a few links.

Wonkette reports on Draft Stormy movement. "VITTER MUST BE DESTROYED!" Related: David Vitter is a jackass (Iced Coffee and a Bagel).

The Politics of Health Reform. Fascinating to get an outside perspective. A sample from the BBC:


Map of New Orleans political donations. Fascinating to click through for a while. I find it especially interesting that a lot of the old St. Charles Ave./Pickwickian-types mainly donated to Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani. Now there's money well spent!

Stimulus Battle in Perspective: Of course, the last time we saw a vote like this one was probably the 1993 vote on Clinton's first budget -- every single Republican in the chamber voted against it, hoping to prove, once and for all, that they were right about economics and Democrats were wrong. If memory serves, that budget was the first step towards the longest economic expansion on record, the creation of 22 million jobs, and the total elimination of the federal budget deficit. Related: For Republicans, there wasn't much downside to voting no.

More extensions to housing aid in Louisiana? Those overly generous subsidies to landlords is part of what's keeping market rates up. You remove those payments, the market will fall (it already has fallen from it's post-Katrina highs). Probably won't return to pre-Katrina rents, but that's unreasonable to expect.

Gulfport Mayor indicted for Katrina fraud.

Taibbi + Blago. Need I say more?

Roger Clemens has always been batshit insane. Deadspin clarifies the level of insanity: "Then Donahue would rub the hottest possible liniment on his testicles. “He’d start snorting like a bull,” the trainer said. “That’s when he was ready to pitch.” "

State Farm completely pulling out of property insurance in Florida.

Here's a few companies that have never had mass layoffs. I can thing of a few to add to the list, too (Honda, for one).

When it comes to Israel, to revive or dump the two-state solution?

Bill Gates talks about education, especially high school, and what constitutes a successful school. Two most interesting points: a kid is better off with a good teacher in a "bad" school than he is with a bad teacher in a "good" school. Also, in extremely poor areas, the schools with the longest schooldays tend to do the best.

Sad to see Cerasoli go. Oyster rounds up the reacts. One little tidbit: “People were telling me he [Nagin] was saying they would regret getting the office up and running 10 years from now.

Old media, don't piss off new media. Remember that the "Symbiotic relationship between new and old media" isn't a one way street... Also, McCain-endorser's Pedo son gets out of jail early with barely a peep from local media.

So, after closing Our Lady of Good Cousel, et. al.*, the Nazi Pope decides to embrace a Holocaust-denier and a cleric who said Katrina was God's punishment for being too kind to the gays.

Want to see Scott Cowen foam at the mouth? Mention the letters AAUP and stand back.

And for your amusement:

The Thing, remade with G.I. Joe's.

*BTW- Great comic 2 weeks ago Greg. Can't link to your comic, though, because the archives are down.

Stand Back: I'm Going to Try Science!

Today could be our last day on Earth. The Large Hadron Collider is starting up. Steven Hawking puts the odds of a black hole ripping apart the earth at "less that 1%." What does the LHC mean for the US? It means we're falling behind in science and science education at an alarming rate. Remember, Particle Physics is "the branch of science that delivered just about every major technology of the past hundred years." Computers, the atomic bomb, nanotechnology, the list goes on. And as I'm writing this post: CERN is up and running!

The US still has the best scientists in the world, but has the worst science education in the industrialized world. What are the problems with science education in the US? Well, let's ask the Mythbusters guys.

First off, you have lawyers:

Thanks to Visa, AmEx, etc. Mythbusters isn't allowed to tear gaping holes into RFID chips. Fuck you very much, assholes. I guess there are some things that are just too dangerous for people to learn, according to lawyers.

Here's how Adam Savage suggests we fix science education. Most important point: get your hands dirty.

And while we're at it, here's Jamie's thoughts on the energy crisis.

What would Houston and Galveston look like after a bad storm surge? Bad. The Houston Ship Channel becomes their MR-GO.

Phun. The coolest 2D physics sandbox ever. Free software. Excellent way to waste your entire Wednesday. Had I had this as a kid, we'd all be going around in flying cars by now.

One final comment: Remember, scientists are cooler than Denzel Washington, according to the man himself.


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Title.

UPDATE- Damn I wish I had an editor sometimes. Misspelled the title. Oops. Now fixed.

Rising Tide 3: Education Panel

The education panel is underway. The discussion has hit some key points. A certain element of the "reform" movement is a right-wing movement to destroy teacher unions, privatize public education (for profit, of course), and destroy community spirit.

I don't know whether or not I'm going to get a chance to ask any questions, but I have a few thoughts on education in New Orleans that I'd like to throw out there.

First off, my mom has been a teacher for 30+ years. She is a union member. She hates the union, but she knows it'll be the only friend in her corner if her back is up against a wall. I've been trying to convince her to shift from Jefferson Parish to Orleans and teach at a school 4 blocks from her house (saving lots of money in gas in the process). She refuses to because there are NO protections on teachers. The union is busted. Even though her friend is the principal, a great teacher is scared away because of the cut-throatedness. Most teachers just want to teach and the best system is the one that puts the fewest impediments in the process.

My second thought is about a couple of incidents in charter schools I know personally about. After Hines and Ben Franklin were converted to charter schools, egregious criminal acts were committed. At Hines, a parent on the PTA was embezzling funds from PTA funds (I'm looking for the article and can't find it). At Ben Franklin High School, the principal turned the budget into her own little kitty to reward and punish teachers. The final straw was her giving her partner a 'performance bonus' of several thousand dollars. The teachers went to the board and got the principal, Carrol Christian*, fired. My point is this: if this is going on at schools that would be considered top-tier in ANY school system, can you imagine what's going on at other schools?

My final thought (at least for now): Orleans Parish School Board's failure was not 100% attributable to lack of funds. OPSB had a $600 million budget. Less than 25 cents out of every education dollar reached the class room. I talked to Maitri last night about corruption in India and she said that they have just as many problems with corruption as we do. My point to her was there are certain things that people don't fuck with. In some areas, societal values make it unthinkable to mess with a child's education. Maitri said, as fucked up as some of the Hindu/Muslim things in India get, there's no movement to force kids to learn intelligent design, etc.

Just a few things to throw out there.

UPDATE- Oh yeah, there are 2 candidates for Orleans Parish School Board I'll give a plug to. Amy LaFont is running for District 3. She was at the party at Buffa's last night. Percy Marchand is an occasional commenter on Ray's blog and showed up today.

UPDATE 2- Being a graduate of a program axed by Scott Cowen, I love it how someone pointed out that the backers of The Cowen Institute are the same backers of Nagin's "award."

UPDATE 3- This is the NY Times article blindly praising the charter schools that one panelist called "garbage."

*- I never saw any news report about the firing. I'm happy to name her name here. Maybe when she applies for a job somewhere, someone will Google her and learn the truth about her.

Ben Franklin News

You might have seen this headline on Nola.com and wondered what was up. Here's what I've been told:

I don't know how many of you know about the situation that happened with Jodee and her volleyball team this past season. Basically, Jodee and the team have kind of been butting heads all year, and after Franklin lost in the semis, Jodee got told off by some of the players. The The team basically bashed Jodee for an hour telling the interim principal that Jodee is a horrible coach and treated them like shit and the only reason they got anywhere was because they played for each other...yada yada yada.

A course of action has been in limbo for a number of months as Franklin had and interim and not an actual Principal. Now that the new Principal has been hired, a group of the parents from the team went and complained, and Jodee was told that her services were no longer needed.

I don't know if many of you know the history of Franklin Volleyball, but Jodee built that program starting with one ball and a piece of crap net in to one of state championship caliber. While you may not have played on one of her teams, if she has positively impacted your life in any way; I am asking that you email a letter saying so to the new Principal and the Head of the Charter Schools in New Orleans.

The New Principal is Timothy Rusnak: timothy_rusnak@benfranklinhs.org
Duris Holmes is the head of AAEE: dholmes@dkslaw.com


Thanks,

Ashley Cobette
BFHS A'2001


There is also a petition out there.

I didn't know her too well, but I know plenty of people who think the world of her (at least once they were alumni).

Sounds like another way the charter system can be abused (overprotective parents conspire to get a good, but tough teacher fired). Hope that isn't the case.

Tony Amato being run out of KCMO Schools?

Tony Amato, the former superintendent of Orleans Parish Public Schools, is in the news again in Kansas City.

Amato was just about the only guy that got favorable treatment in Left Behind, the Story of the New Orleans Public Schools.

From what it looks like to me, he's trying to be run out of town even though he's done good by the students. I have a sneaking suspicion that these allegations are nothing more than an excuse to get rid of him, just like in New Orleans.

UPDATE- A local a local reaction. Looks like my initial feelings were correct.

Science Education

Shit like this pisses me off. But not for the reasons you might expect...

Creationism/"Intelligent Design"/"Teach the controversy" is nothing more than a ruse to get Christianity into schools. That's not a revelation. It's a flagrant violation of the separation of church and state and should be defeated on that grounds, but that's not the reason this really gets under my skin.

Whenever society faces serious problems, politicians love to point to new technologies to solve all our problems, from biofuels, to immigration, etc.

Politicians have good reason to trust in technology. Science has come to the rescue many times before. Look at Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution. Everyone was predicting global catastrophe, mass starvation, and a massive "die-off" of humanity. Thomas Malthus couldn't have written more dire warnings. But none of it transpired because science rode to the rescue. Science fed the world. With current technology, you could probably feed 7 billion people (although distribution would be problematic).

I have a feeling in the not too distant future, we'll have serious challenges on the order of the Great Depression. Exactly what it will be, I'm not quite sure, but it's coming. I do know that people will look to science. There have been numerous calls for a "Manhattan Project" to solve America's dependence on foreign oil.

I've got a dirty little secret for anyone out there: there's a nation-wide shortage of engineers. We don't have enough engineers to keep our current infrastructure going, much less expand or evolve. Currently, the US aerospace, nuclear, oil and gas, mining, and US manufacturing (or at least what's left) sectors are all running full-bore and they can't hire enough engineers to do the projects they want. Also, companies are just starting to get hit by a wave of retiring baby-boomers, which will only accelerate this trend.

Want coastal restoration? There's no way the Corps will be able to tackle coastal restoration without a massive infusion of talent. They don't have enough engineers to do all the project on their plate. I was talking with 5 employees from the Corps at a party and I mentioned I just graduated from Tulane in Mechanical Engineering and they fell over each other to ask me if I had a job yet and wanted to work for the Corps (sorry guys, too late).

What's happening to all the engineers? In the past, the US could import engineers from Eastern Europe and India, but that isn't happening this time for 2 reasons: 9/11 and visa problems and growing prosperity abroad. While there was a surge in enrollment in computer science during the .Com boom, American-born students aren't enrolling in engineering in large enough numbers. Engineering curriculum is, by and large, harder than business or law [put on helmet and prepared to be bombarded by bricks from lawyers]. We have lawyers and MBA's out the wazoo, but not enough engineers. Business and law also have the draw of quick money, while engineers make good money, there is a glass ceiling and engineers rarely strike it rich.

Houston is getting hit especially hard. I know a few engineers over there and what they've told me is people are taking advantage of the shortage by moving from firm to firm to ratchet up their salaries and companies, flush with cash, desperate to keep projects going, are all to happy to ante up. Every month or so, some engineers move on for a dollar or two more per hour.

Who is addressing the shortage? To date I have not seen one meaningful plan to address the problem. Nobody in local industry put up a fight when Tulane eliminated engineering. No local leader called Cowen on his bullshit. I was a student then and it was depressing.

When we really, really need engineers, we're going to find the cupboard bare. That's what scares me. And that's why Vitter and creationists must be defeated.

UPDATE- Importing Science Talent. From CNN Money talking about H1B Visas. Anyone got any experience and opinions on H1B's? The only expertise on this sort of stuff are the foreign workers offshore.