According to news reports, American Idol was the most watched television program of the season when it began again on Tuesday. 33.5 million people tuned in.
That means, of course, that approximately 200 million other Americans over the age of 12 did NOT tune in.
Two days late perhaps, but a page of inaugural trivia from the History News Network.
Another lovely, little story from Beats Per Minute, “The Lives We Lead.”
“One Teacher’s Journey through School and through Life in General.”
Do you agree with this college basketball axiom from BrokenCowboy?
“[G]ood juniors and seniors will almost always beat great freshmen and sophomores.”
A sortable listing of Social Security recipient information by Congressional district.
Link via Talking Points Memo.
What You’ll Wish You’d Known, a possible talk for high schoolers by Paul Graham. Interesting reading.
I’ll start by telling you something you don’t have to know in high school: what you want to do with your life. People are always asking you this, so you think you’re supposed to have an answer. But adults ask this mainly as a conversation starter. They want to know what sort of person you are, and this question is just to get you talking. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool, to see what it does.
Like Paula Poundstone, I thought adults asked kids what they wanted to be because the adults were still searching for ideas.
… If you’d asked me in high school what the difference was between high school kids and adults, I’d have said it was that adults had to earn a living. Wrong. It’s that adults take responsibility for themselves. Making a living is only a small part of it.
… It’s dangerous to design your life around getting into college, because the people you have to impress to get into college are not a very discerning audience. At most colleges, it’s not the professors who decide whether you get in, but admissions officers, and they are nowhere near as smart.
… If you think it’s restrictive being a kid, imagine having kids.
… What you learn in even the best high school is rounding error compared to what you learn in college.