Run and Hide, my good man.  Today of all days.  And take your trusty irons with you.

It's Zombie Uprising day!

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Not to worry, the next Harry Potter might just be on the horizon already:

Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams were signed by Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham after he tracked down an early version of their book "Tunnels" that was self-published.

"I knew from page one that Harry Potter was magic. Reading 'Tunnels' gave me the same thrill," said Cunningham, who has also achieved worldwide publishing success with the children's books of German writer Cornelia Funke.

"Tunnels has it all: a boy archaeologist, merciless villains, a lost world and an extraordinary journey to the centre of the earth," Cunningham said after first stirring up interest at the international children's rights fair in Bologna.

Fourteen-year-old Will Burrows lives with his family in London. He has little in common with them except for a passion for digging which he shares with his father. When his father suddenly disappears down an unknown tunnel, Will decides to investigate with his friend Chester. Soon they find themselves deep underground, where they unearth a dark and terrifying secret - a secret which may cost them their lives.

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Thirty years ago all the buzz was about girls falling behind academically.  We HAD to fix that.  Change the classrooms.  Make them more girl-friendly.  Give the girls more role models, more chances.  Affirmative action for girls, right?

Well, it looks like we did TOO good a job.  As this article points out, boys are now falling far behind girls, and are testing at a lower level than they were 35 years ago.

“Boys are in trouble,” said Krista Kafer, visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. “The facts are quite clear; boys trail girls in most indicators of academic excellence such as, school engagement, achievement scores, and graduation rates at secondary and postsecondary levels.” Kafer presented these facts in her latest IWF position paper, Taking the Boy Crisis in Education Seriously: How School Choice Can Boost Achievement Among Boys and Girls.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, shows an overwhelming amount of data that supports KaferÂ’s theory. Take a look:
* A 2005 NAEP study revealed that a third of 12th grade boys cannot read a newspaper and understand what they are reading.
* The NAEP “Long-Term Trend Test” (started in 1971 and has remained unchanged to better track academic trends over time) showed that at age 17 boys’ reading achievement was fourteen points lower than girls’ and in fact is lower than it was in 1971.
* The same test also shows that scores for the 12th grade reveal that in math, girls have improved while boys have slipped. In reading, girls have improved a little while boys have fallen behind even more.

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Here's a little Kitty Office Space for you:



Courtesy the geniuses at ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.com

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The house looks like a box tornado hit it.  Seriously.

And my brain is SO not functioning.

More after we get the internet working in the house tomorrow morning.

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Linky Love for Mr./Ms. 200,000!

We are 156 hits away!

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Ok, so I had been avoiding reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci code. With all of the freaking hype, I just wanted to make it go away. This, in spite of the fact that I have read all of the other novels he's written, and I love them.

The only question I have is why did no one tell me how much I would like this book sooner?

Reasons why below the fold for the 3 of you who haven't read the book and don't want spoilers. more...

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(that means YOU, wRitersBlock, and you Harvey)

Chris Muir will be the guest on tomorrow's Steve H. Graham Blogtalk Radio show.

9:30pm Eastern, Wednesday May 16.

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My gal Ricki has some words for college students as they are about take their spring semester finals and receive their grades. It's as true for my students as it is for hers:

[T]his is aimed at everybody who fails to understand that going to college means they're supposed to put some effort into their education:

1. No, I don't offer extra credit. Especially AFTER the final exam, when you would be the only one with the opportunity to do it.

2. I'm really sorry you got a D, but if you had paid attention to what I was saying earlier in the semester, and if you had paid attention to the fact that all the grades on the tops of the papers I handed back to you were Ds, it should not come as a shock to you.

3. I'm terribly aggrieved that you will, in fact, not be able to graduate. However, there are consequences for one's actions and one of the consequences of not doing the work in a class is that you fail the class. And one of the consequences of failing a class may be that you do not get to graduate. However, after the final exam is not the most opportune time to consider this possibility.

4. No, I cannot give an "incomplete" because you failed the class. "Incomplete" is for people who are PASSING, but, say, give birth three weeks before the semester is over. Or break their leg. Or have to care for their post-op father. Do not demean the purpose of an "incomplete" by trying to use it to save your own sorry ass.

5. And to all the people who call me on the phone 20 minutes after a (non-machine-graded) exam is over to ask me if I "have [their] exam graded yet" - stick that phone where the sun don't shine. First off, I'm not a mindreader, so I can't predict you're going to call me, and so, grade your exam first. Second of all, you're not entitled to get your exam graded any faster than anyone else's. Third, if you call me on the phone, it just slows me down, and it makes me annoyed to boot. Fourth, if I WERE clairvoyant and knew you were going to call me up asking if I had your exam graded, you can bet your sweet bippy that exam would be at the very bottom of the stack.

On the first day of class, I give my students Ricki's Super Secret Advice For Success In College. It is: "Don't piss off your professors."

Please consider that advice in the coming week. I still have your grades to assign.

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One of my favorite things to do, sportswise, is sit down and watch the first round of the NFL draft. I love college football, and I know quite a bit about it, and it's fun to watch the scheming and the trading and the guessing. It's like a chess match with overfed idiots calling the shots.

Yet every year it seems something ALWAYS prevents me from watching. This year, it's a home inspection scheduled for 9 AM tomorrow (tentatively.... I'm guessing the current owners won't be happy about that).

Oh well. Thank Goodness for TiVo. I'll Tivo the first bit and watch the rest LIVE. :-)

In other sports news, we went to our first Dodgers game of the year last night, Joe Beimel sucks, and we lost, but I brought home a new friend.

Meet my buddy Nomar:

No, he doesn't play "Lowrider"  :-)

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1 But you can't be his friend unless you have one!

Posted by: Bill at April 27, 2007 11:16 AM (bpbQx)

2 Or as we used to call him in Boston, Nomah. ;-)

Posted by: Dave J at April 27, 2007 06:39 PM (PEbS4)

3 Well, a "Nomah" bobble head is pretty cool, but you may now officially envy me because we have one of these. I mean, really. Nomar's career will end but a Dodger Dog is forever. Of course, I still envy you because we haven't been to the hallowed grounds of Dodger Stadium for some time now, though Daughter Number One has been there recently.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at April 27, 2007 07:35 PM (Yh9SA)

4 I'm not going to be able to watch it either, but I'm looking for three from my team to be drafted in the first round, including maybe the number one pick. We'll see, I guess.

Posted by: Dash at April 27, 2007 07:42 PM (d3xGU)

5 Blah...

Posted by: Thomas Warlock at April 27, 2007 09:34 PM (77Jve)

6 Maybe on TiVo its bearable, but otherwise, the NFL draft?!?!? I'm a pretty devout sports fan, but I don't know if I could sit there for hours watching that thing-- though I suppose it's still better than watching the anoerixic-capades also known as gymnastics. Then again, if your only other option is the Dodgers, maybe I can understand....

Posted by: Tony Iovino at April 30, 2007 06:44 AM (85Zmb)

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Well, DUH. Especially if by "metal" you mean bands like Queen:

Researchers questioned more than 1,000 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, whose members rank among the brightest five percent of youngsters in Britain.

"There is a perception of gifted and talented students as being into classical music and spending a lot of time reading.

"I think that is an inaccurate stereotype," Stuart Cadwallader, a University of Warwick psychologist who is presenting the findings to the British Psychological Society Wednesday, told the Daily Telegraph.

"We are looking at a group with lower than average self-esteem that does not feel quite as well adjusted.

"They feel more stressed out and turn to heavy metal as a way of relieving that stress."

Cadwallader added that heavy metal fans often appreciate the "complex and sometimes political themes" of the music.

"It has a tendency to worry adults a bit but I think it's just a cathartic thing," he said.

"It does not indicate problems."

Many of heavy metal's biggest stars are closet geeks -- Brian May, guitarist with Queen, is currently finishing a doctorate in astrophysics, while Iron Maiden star Bruce Dickinson is a history graduate, international fencer and qualified commercial pilot.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 03:43 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 I'd be more apt to believe this if they used a larger sample size and from other schools.

Posted by: Contagion at March 21, 2007 04:55 PM (T4WRc)

2 This doesn't surprise me at all. My smartest friends, and I know some REALLY frickin' scary smart people, all listen to the hard stuff. It is a good release.

Posted by: Bou at March 21, 2007 07:08 PM (PQFHD)

3 I wouldn't exactly classify Queen as metal. But then again, practically all musical category labelling like that is pretentious bullshit.

Posted by: Dave J at March 21, 2007 09:05 PM (PEbS4)

4 UP THE IRONS!

Posted by: jimmyb at March 22, 2007 02:25 AM (4ki9u)

5 I am a stereotypical nerd, geek, etc., in that I do love to read and listen to symphony. I love the peace of the music, without the clutter of words. Hey, I have enough voices in my head without being bombarded by the ones blaring from my radio.

Posted by: Thomas Warlock at March 22, 2007 07:41 PM (dzxwM)

6 Nerds have made many useful contributions to society. Some noted nerds include the Talking Heads' David Byrne, physicist Steven Hawking, and Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Awwww - not Souter!

Posted by: Nightfly at March 23, 2007 12:57 AM (w0PAh)

7 Hello. My name is Dogette and I'm a Geek. My favorite music has always been "metal" or hard rock or whatever they're calling the more intense stuff this week.

Posted by: dogette at March 23, 2007 07:10 AM (q/UVc)

8 The fact is, aside from a handful scary guys like Pete Steele from Type O Negative, most metal musicians are former AV and/or band geeks in high school, and tend to be short and skinny. I ran with a metal crowd, and none of us were athletes, nor were we burners or delinquents. We were the kids who skipped dances and listened to the brand new Iron Maiden album while drinking a couple of Dad's beers. BTW, I'm 41 and still a rabid metalhead. SLAYER!

Posted by: PaleoMedic at March 23, 2007 10:58 AM (xirX/)

9 Back in the day, we geeks listened to RUSH! (Hell, yeah!) Brian May is one of my favorite guitarists. I'm such a geek to this day, I can go from Sarah Brightman to Cradle of Filth without flinching. That might be a sign of mental illness, but I'll ignore it and hope it goes away

Posted by: Brian the sailor at March 24, 2007 08:14 AM (JIAXL)

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Everyone else has done this one, guess it's my turn...

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I am currently #1 on Google for "i support communism"...

...for a post entitled "Don't support Communism".

And it's not a googlebomb.

Yay me!

Oh, and BTW, Communism sucks.  Big Ugly Donkey Balls.  That is all.

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In honor of International Eat an Animal for Peta day, have some quizzes which have nothing to do with it, except that in the bible they killed an awful lot of animals.... mostly for food.  Funny that.

Anyway, here they are:

Old Testament

New Testament

Similar to the EU and 50 states quizzes posted below. 

Hint: In the OT game, add a space to the end of 3 letter words, and in BOTH games, 1st and 2nd books are denoted I and II (that's the letter i) at the FRONT of the name.  Good luck!

YAY! to Rachel, who made the bible ones!

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Shamelessly copied from Rachel and Mandy.....

Create your own Friend Quiz here

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Here's the EU game!  Slightly less challenging, there are only 27 in 10 minutes!

h/t BethC

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Go here, and see how many of the 50 United States you can name in 10:00.

I made it with 4:33 left.  Poor Iowa.  Iowa was last.

h/t Jay

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