Sunday, May 20, 2007
Cuban Missle Crisis: Not Quite, But Much More Amusing
Not that Cayuga's Cons or I am endorsing Fred Thompson for the 2008 GOP Presidential nomination, but this is a great video of Thompson's rebuttal to Michael Moore's challenge for a health care debate. It's short and sweet just in case you have "too much work" to watch some quality online video.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Is CNN.com Serious?
As you may (or may not) know, on Monday the FBI foiled a terrorist plot against Fort Dix arresting six radical Islamists living in the Cherry Hill, NJ area. The men were planning on inflitrating the base and firing on soldiers and civilians with AK-47 assault rifles. The terrorists had been scouting the base and training for months in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. According to federal authorities, the men were entering the "last stage of planning" of their attack as they attempted to purchase AK-47s and M-16s from an FBI informant. On Wednesday, the men were charged with immigration violations and terrorism charges.
However, CNN.com has buried the story. There is no mention of the arrest or the charges that had been filed on Wednesday. Instead, headlines such as "Retired Generals launch anti-war ad" and "The Ugly Side of Paris Hilton" grace the front page of "The most trusted name in news"'s internet flagship.
FoxNews, The Drudge Report, and MSNBC.com all have prominent front page stories about the event at the time of this posting.
One must wonder where CNN's head is at in terms of this story's coverage. It seems both odd and disturbing that CNN would bury the story about a potentially catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil in the back pages of it's website. Most visitors to these news websites often only view their front pages, and one would think that this story is a tad more important than what Paris Hilton says or does when she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
However, CNN.com has buried the story. There is no mention of the arrest or the charges that had been filed on Wednesday. Instead, headlines such as "Retired Generals launch anti-war ad" and "The Ugly Side of Paris Hilton" grace the front page of "The most trusted name in news"'s internet flagship.
FoxNews, The Drudge Report, and MSNBC.com all have prominent front page stories about the event at the time of this posting.
One must wonder where CNN's head is at in terms of this story's coverage. It seems both odd and disturbing that CNN would bury the story about a potentially catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil in the back pages of it's website. Most visitors to these news websites often only view their front pages, and one would think that this story is a tad more important than what Paris Hilton says or does when she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Grade Inflation: It's not just Harvard anymore
Cornellians who missed the cut at Harvard generally like to console themselves by pointing out the Crimson's infamous grade inflation problem, with A's being 46% of grades issued. But it looks as though Cornell might be catching up to its Ivy League rival:
Median Grades on the Rise
With this story, a few thoughts come to my mind. Many have pointed out that the nationwide trend of grade inflation reflects the "entitlement mentality" of this narcissistic generation; college is becoming more of a credential factory than a place to actually grow in knowledge, and these kids feel entitled to their A's. And professors who wish to earn tenure know that student evaluations matter a great deal, so they make courses less challenging to court favorable student opinion. The result? A decline in academic rigor and an emphasis on GPAs rather than actual learning.
I would be curious to know the precise departmental breakdown of the median grades and number of A's. I've personally never taken a class that even had a grade of A+ as an option, let alone as a median grade. I would venture to guess that the biggest culprits are the "usual suspects" -- the perpetually athlete-friendly Applied Economics and Management major ("AEM"), the Hotel School, and Arts and Sciences departments such as Sociology and any one of the "oppressed group of the week" departments. Grading policy differs greatly from department to department, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few programs were having a very large impact on the grade inflation at Cornell.
The solution? The article talks about a grade deflation policy at Princeton that managed to cut back the number of A's by about 10% with a few years. According to the Sun article, Cornell has no plan for a university-wide deflation program, saying that such change needs to come from the "bottom up." That doesn't make me too optimistic, as many professors have too many incentives to keep students' grades artificially high.
Median Grades on the Rise
Cornell is said to be the easiest Ivy to get into and the hardest to stay in. With the admissions rate reaching an all-time low this year and the number of As on the rise, Cornell’s long-standing reputation may not hold true much longer.
According to Sun archives, 17.5 percent of grades distributed to students in 1965 were As; by 2000, that number had risen to 40 percent.
Furthermore, 17 courses last semester had a median of an A+, while only 13 had a median of a B-, according to the Fall 2006 Median Grade Report. No classes had a median below a B-.
With this story, a few thoughts come to my mind. Many have pointed out that the nationwide trend of grade inflation reflects the "entitlement mentality" of this narcissistic generation; college is becoming more of a credential factory than a place to actually grow in knowledge, and these kids feel entitled to their A's. And professors who wish to earn tenure know that student evaluations matter a great deal, so they make courses less challenging to court favorable student opinion. The result? A decline in academic rigor and an emphasis on GPAs rather than actual learning.
I would be curious to know the precise departmental breakdown of the median grades and number of A's. I've personally never taken a class that even had a grade of A+ as an option, let alone as a median grade. I would venture to guess that the biggest culprits are the "usual suspects" -- the perpetually athlete-friendly Applied Economics and Management major ("AEM"), the Hotel School, and Arts and Sciences departments such as Sociology and any one of the "oppressed group of the week" departments. Grading policy differs greatly from department to department, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few programs were having a very large impact on the grade inflation at Cornell.
The solution? The article talks about a grade deflation policy at Princeton that managed to cut back the number of A's by about 10% with a few years. According to the Sun article, Cornell has no plan for a university-wide deflation program, saying that such change needs to come from the "bottom up." That doesn't make me too optimistic, as many professors have too many incentives to keep students' grades artificially high.
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