Monthly Archives: March 2007

Well-Intended, but…

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We require children to wear seat belts in cars; why not school buses? It seems like a good idea, but research indicates that it wouldn’t make much difference (except perhaps to keep kids in their seats):

[TSBA TLN Notes –] Organizations such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have concluded that seat belts would not have prevented most of the serious injuries and fatalities from occurring in school bus crashes. In 1989, the NAS completed a study of ways to improve school bus safety and concluded that the overall potential benefits of requiring seat belts on school buses were insufficient to justify a mandate for installation.

On Wednesday, the State Senate Education Committee unexpectedly approved legislation to require seat belts on buses purchased after July 1, 2007. The cost is estimated at $14 million in recurring dollars in State cost, accompanied by $27.6 million in one-time and $13.8 million in recurring costs to local governments.

That’s a lot of money for something that is not expected to make a significant difference.

The measure next goes to the Senate Finance Committee, of which our own Sen. Randy McNally is the Chair. It might be worth dropping a note in opposition to this bill, which exemplifies part of the funding difficulty faced by local school systems — unfunded mandates.

First Class Insults

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This was too good not to pass along.  No, I haven’t run it past Snopes; it really doesn’t matter to me if the quotes were ever truly uttered by those they’re attributed to… they’re still worth pondering.  Thanks David, for sharing!

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” –Winston Churchill

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about” — Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
— Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
— William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
— Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.” — Abraham Lincoln

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” — Groucho Marx

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” — Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. — Oscar Wilde

“I enclose two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend… if you have one.”
— George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one.” — Winston Churchill, in response.

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” — John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” — Irvin S. Cobb

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.”  — Billy Wilder

“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”  — Samuel Johnson

“He had delusions of adequacy.” — Walter Kerr

“There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.” — Jack E. Leonard

“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.” — Thomas Brackett Reed

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” — Charles Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” — Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” — Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” — Mae West

Tuesday, continued

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My little group of four (two eighth graders, two sixth graders) just completed their finalists’ interview with the judges for their entry in the Cyberspace Pursuits competition; I think we’re in luck, and they were prepared for the kinds of questions that were asked.

All technical.  Like, “what’s the most important thing to remember in building a web page?”  W.P. knew the answer: “remember to close your tags.”

I know I don’t have the patience to be a real teacher, but the feeling I get from these youngsters mastering something that most adults can’t do is extremely gratifying.  I’ve learned a few things myself through this experience, like you can’t judge immediately who’s soaking it up and who isn’t.  The quietest kids may well have absorbed the material better than anyone else.

Tomorrow morning — the awards ceremony — seems like a hundred years away.

TSA State Conference – Tuesday

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Transportation Challenge Delta's CarDay 2 has been busy for Delta, completing her Electrical Apps practical in the morning, followed by Transportation Challenge, where she got to see if her little car would make it all the way up the ramp (the last part is a 45-degree angle).

It’s a pretty clever little car, with tracks instead of wheels, and staples coming through the tracks like studded snow tires of old. She didn’t make it all the way to the top, but as of the last one we watched, only one did. However, after flipping backward on the steepest part of the ramp, Delta’s car landed rightside up and kept moving up the ramp. I don’t know if that gets extra points, but the crowd liked it.

For now, she’s taking a bit of a breather before her team takes on the Cyberspace interview this afternoon. I’d post a link, but I’m not sure if we’re allowed to since the event will be entered into the national competition as well.

TSA State Conference – Monday

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Yesterday, we boarded the big yellow cheesewagon bound for Chattanooga — official home of the 2007 Tennessee Technology Students Association State Conference.

It is a highly competitive event; kids spend months in preparation.

Last night there were several written exams given, with only the finalists going on to compete for the trophies. Delta, my youngest, made the final cut in the electrical applications elimination round, along with her friend Woo — giving Robertsville Middle School two of the ten finalist spots statewide.

Beta gave her campaign speech this morning before a crowd of about 800 middle and high school students (she’s running for state secretary); most 16 year-olds would be terrified. If she was, I couldn’t tell. That bodes well for her performance in the prepared and extemporaneous speech events, I hope.

Beta and Woo are two of the team of four I’ve coached in Cyberspace this year; I hope they do as well in that interview tomorrow as they’ve performed in the other events thus far.

Be proud of these kids, Oak Ridge: they make us all look good.

Weekend Weary

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The Tennessee Technology Students’ Association annual conference begins tomorrow, and two of my girls are off to compete. Beta’s events are prepared speech, extemporaneous speaking, and chapter team (essentially, a parliamentary procedure competition). She took first and third in the speaking events at regionals a couple of weeks ago.

Delta is signed up for electrical applications, transportation challenge, and cyberspace pursuit (website design). None of those were included in the regional events, so this is her big chance.

The latter of those events — cyberspace — is one in which I have a particular interest, since I’ve been coaching the Robertsville team in the event. On Thursday, I learned that they qualified as finalists in the state competition. On Tuesday evening, four of the kids on the team will undergo an interview with the judges, and on Wednesday, we’ll learn whether they’ve placed at the state level.

Delta is now the proud owner of her very own multimeter, a necessity for the electrical apps event. There are also a couple of new pint-sized business suits, a new dress, new non slip shoes, and other necessary accoutrements for the suitcase (the dress code is rather upgraded from usual school attire).

Beta decided to run for state office this year, and unfortunately, hasn’t gotten around to putting together her campaign materials. I confess that she’d asked me to help, but she hasn’t been home enough (or I haven’t) to really communicate some essentials (campaign theme? colors?). Today was crunch time, and of course she was assigned to driving school all day — penance for her traffic citation back in December, issued for following too closely (while stopped at a traffic light — she was trying to read a bumper sticker).

That left me stuck with ironing her logo onto four campaign t-shirts, then printing up a boatload of lapel stickers and business cards… all while persuading Delta to pack her suitcase.

I’m still not packed. We leave tomorrow morning. I feel like I need a work week to recover from this weekend… and now the washing machine is acting up.

Disclosure Update

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In a post earlier today, I wrote that Raj Jain, one of the vocal critics of the Crestpointe proposal, is employed in some fashion by Oliver Smith Realty, the Knoxville firm that has listed for sale several parcels surrounding Home Depot and National Fitness.

Ellen Smith commented in the previous thread that Raj does not work for Oliver Smith, but has his own company, InteliSim Inc. LLC.

However, upon double-checking my information, I learned that someone named Raj Jain (and matching the physical description of the gentleman who introduced himself to me on Monday) had presented himself as representing Oliver Smith Realty in a meeting with City staff, where the discussion centered on some mini-warehouses and storage facilities proposed by Jain for one of the parcels that Oliver Smith Realty has listed.

It is entirely plausible, therefore, that he is not an employee of Oliver Smith, but it certainly appears that there is an existing business relationship of the nature where he would claim to represent the company before City staff.

The proposal has not come before the Planning Commission, but what is proposed or planned for that property isn’t the point of this thread.  The purpose of this discussion is to determine whether Raj’s motive in pushing for a referendum, and for defeat of the proposed bond issue for Crestpointe, is really one of squeezing out competition rather than looking out for the financial health of the community.

And yes, there is more than one Raj Jain (the most common reference in a Google search is a computer science professor at Washington University in St. Louis); that’s why I asked my source if the physical description I gave matched the fellow linked to Oliver Smith Realty.

Thus, there appears to be some truth worth pursuing in this story.