The 1982 Conan (Arnold, John Milius of Apocalypse Now, Oliver Stone, Basil Poledouris)
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Opening Sequence Part 1 (click me)
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Opening Sequence Part 2 (click me)
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Opening Sequence Part 3 (click me)
Part 4
Part 5 (this starts part 4 over you can stop watching once you see part 4 again)
The 2011 Conan Opening Sequence (Jason Momoa of Game of Thrones)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
The Kids Can't Read
So I came across this article from the American Spectator about the poor state of reading skills we have today. The numbers were staggering...
the part that caught my eye was this
then this particular statement
I was unfamiliar with the Whole Language approach, then after a little digging... apparently academics noticed that readers consumed entire words at a time, so they thought hey, we should teach kids to read whole words at a time (vs constructing them phonetically piece by piece).... this link on halcyon.org has a colorful description.
(as a hyperbolic example, if you learn by whole language you basically have to rote memorize all the words in the english language.... if you come to a word you 'don't' already and you didn't learn how to get hooked on phonics... you are probably fucked... lol)
then I came across this interesting article on the new american, about how the soviets originally tried the 'whole language method' back during the early years of Communism... then they ditched it in the 1930's because it sucked...... check that article out here.
excerpt
In the end our epic fail in reading may be caused by something totally different.... however... this is pretty interesting nonetheless
The low levels of literacy also aren't confined to the Peach State: Twenty-six percent of America's eighth-graders and one in three fourth-graders are functionally illiterate.
the part that caught my eye was this
This is a problem with nearly every race, age, and social class.
then this particular statement
A four-decade war over whether reading instruction should emphasize phonics and spelling or Whole Language (a system by which students should learn the meaning behind sentences) has also fueled the literacy crisis. During the 1970s and 1980s, states embraced Whole Language and ignored phonics, forgetting that kids need to know how to also sound words. Only after states saw reading scores decline did they reverse course. Most reading experts argue that phonics and Whole Language are both needed in order to learn reading. But schools aren't doing a good job instructing in either area.
I was unfamiliar with the Whole Language approach, then after a little digging... apparently academics noticed that readers consumed entire words at a time, so they thought hey, we should teach kids to read whole words at a time (vs constructing them phonetically piece by piece).... this link on halcyon.org has a colorful description.
(as a hyperbolic example, if you learn by whole language you basically have to rote memorize all the words in the english language.... if you come to a word you 'don't' already and you didn't learn how to get hooked on phonics... you are probably fucked... lol)
then I came across this interesting article on the new american, about how the soviets originally tried the 'whole language method' back during the early years of Communism... then they ditched it in the 1930's because it sucked...... check that article out here.
excerpt
Oddly enough, the Russians used the whole-word method back in the early days of the communist regime, but replaced it with phonics in the 1930s when it became obvious that look-say didn’t produce the kind of high literacy the communist leaders wanted. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Vol. 4, p. 423) describes what happened in its article on Primers:
In the end our epic fail in reading may be caused by something totally different.... however... this is pretty interesting nonetheless
Why "Super 8" is really just a kid friendly "The Thing"
Alien crash lands spaceship on earth - Check
Alien abducts people (infestation is like kidnapping right?) - Check
Alien nom noms on humans and animals - Check
Humans shoot at alien - Check
Alien is just trying to build a spaceship to go home - Check
Of course that goes for almost all aliens crash land trying to get home movies... but this one just jumped at me.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Epic College Major Statistics
So I found these epic College Education statistics on the National Center for Education Statistics....
Here is an except, the numbers are quite interesting (click the link above to see the other charts and the rest of the data)
Of the 1.6 million bachelor's degrees awarded in 2008–09, over 50 percent were concentrated in five fields: business (22 percent), social sciences and history (11 percent), health professions and related clinical sciences (8 percent), education (6 percent), and psychology (6 percent) (see table A-40-1). The fields of visual and performing arts (6 percent), engineering and engineering technologies (5 percent), communication and communications technologies (5 percent), and biological and biomedical sciences (5 percent) represented an additional 21 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in 2008–09.
Overall, there were 33 percent more bachelor's degrees awarded in 2008–09 than in 1998–99 (an increase of 401,100 bachelor's degrees awarded). Bachelor's degrees awarded in the field of parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies had the largest percent change of all fields (from 16,500 to 31,700 degrees, a 92 percent change). The next largest percent change was in the field of security and protective services (from 24,600 to 41,800 degrees, a 70 percent change). Education was the only field in which fewer bachelor's degrees were awarded in 2008–09 than in 1998–99 (a negative percent change of 5 percent).
About 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees conferred in 2008–09 were awarded to females, which was about the same as the percentage awarded to females in 1998–99. Looking at the five most prevalent bachelor's degree fields, females earned between 49 and 85 percent of the degrees awarded in those fields. In 2008–09, females earned the smallest percentages of bachelor's degrees relative to males in the fields of engineering and engineering technologies (16 percent of these degrees were awarded to females) and computer and information sciences and support services (18 percent female), both of which are considered STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. From 1998–99 to 2008–09, there were changes in the percentages of bachelor's degrees conferred to females in several fields of study. For example, of all the bachelor's degrees conferred in the field of security and protective services, the percentage that were conferred to females was 50 percent in 2008–09, compared with 43 percent in 1998–99. In contrast, of all the bachelor's degrees conferred in the field of computer and information sciences and support services, the percentage conferred to females was 18 percent in 2008–09, compared with 27 percent in 1998–99.
Then we have College Majors vs income here.
Then we have College Majors vs income here.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY | 19.5% | $25,000 | $40,000 | $61,000 | 168 |
MISCELLANEOUS FINE ARTS | 16.2% | $26,000 | $40,000 | $49,000 | 164 |
UNITED STATES HISTORY | 15.1% | $30,000 | $50,000 | $96,000 | 139 |
LIBRARY SCIENCE | 15.0% | $23,000 | $36,000 | $49,000 | 159 |
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY | 10.9% | $28,000 | $35,000 | $51,000 | 156 |
MILITARY TECHNOLOGIES | 10.9% | $81,000 | $86,000 | $126,000 | 173 |
ARCHITECTURE | 10.6% | $37,000 | $60,000 | $85,000 | 33 |
INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY | 10.4% | $45,000 | $62,000 | $81,000 | 135 |
MISCELLANEOUS PSYCHOLOGY | 10.3% | $30,000 | $45,000 | $71,000 | 120 |
LINGUISTICS AND COMPARATIVE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE | 10.2% | $30,000 | $44,000 | $70,000 | 90 |
COMPUTER ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT AND SECURITY | 9.5% | $39,000 | $52,000 | $75,000 | 114 |
VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS | 9.2% | $20,000 | $36,000 | $52,000 | 103 |
ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT | 9.2% | $50,000 | $71,000 | $98,000 | 127 |
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY | 8.8% | $32,000 | $45,000 | $60,000 | 155 |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS | 8.5% | $38,000 | $52,000 | $87,000 | 72 |
HUMANITIES | 8.4% | $30,000 | $45,000 | $62,000 | 118 |
ELECTRICAL AND MECHANIC REPAIRS AND TECHNOLOGIES | 8.4% | $30,000 | $44,000 | $68,000 | 134 |
GENERAL SOCIAL SCIENCES | 8.2% | $34,000 | $50,000 | $74,000 | 68 |
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