Like your usual open thread, but more pithy and reassuring.
Open Thread
I’m busy huffing the sweet menthol fumes from a Vicks vaporizer as I hack and cough up whatever I have now.
Late OT & Thursday Night Menu
Our “new” dog Gloria’s status is changing from foster to permanent, and she is totally taking advantage. Eight-year-old Zevon is limping from a hard shoulder check, Syd Viscous is reverting to his old abused Worm Boy persona, and don’t even ask what the three cats think. Gloria automatically goes to the Time Out crate when I raise my voice now, but you can see the “Whatevs — totally worth it” thought balloon hanging over her head, the little menace. Time to re-enroll at the doggy training classes…
Here is Bad Horse Filly’s First Snow Thursday Night Menu:
This is not your mamma’s canned tomato soup and grilled cheese, and can I say, the flax cookies are addictive (they’re a friend’s recipe, so I can say that.)
Hearty Tomato Soup
Totally Awesome Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Flax Cookies
(Click the blue ‘First Snow’ link for the complete details.)
Open Thread
Sorry for the light posting, but I was away at a function all night, and am now couchbound until bedtime.
This is not a smart ass question
Is there anything that vouchers aren’t the answer for? I mean that on two different levels: (1) is there any question that conservatives don’t think vouchers are the answer for and (2) is it conceivable that, given any question, it really is possible to come up with a reasonable answer involving vouchers.
I’m not saying that Feldstein’s voucher health care solution is crazy. I’m just curious.
Update. Ezekiel Emanuel wrote a paper in support of health care vouchers a few years ago. (h/t Rob from Denver). My point is not to mock vouchers, more to encourage a provocative discussion with interesting points, an intellectual exercise if you will.
Drastically Shorter Tom Levenson
Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning, first proposed by psychologist Benjamin Bloom in 1951, revolutionized the science of education by allowing the cognitive level at which students and teachers work to be classified on a simple scale. Professional academics, for example, regard any work that does not reach the sixth and highest level, evaluation, as derivative. A proper work of Evaluation requires one not only to understand the fundamentals of a given topic, but also to weigh the competing perspectives of other scholars before reaching a coherent and original conclusion.
On a rare occasion when Megan McArdle bothered to ground her suppositions in fact, and therefore performed what a professional would call ‘learning’, McMegan arguably reached level one. McMegan correctly summarized the argument of one relatively dated theoretical report on healthcare spending and innovation, without noting that numerous equally qualified professionals disagree. McMegan also did not note that the same authors later tested their model in the real world and concluded that their earlier study was wrong [correction – cannot fully explain what happens in the real world].
One can also reach Bloom’s first level by opening the newspaper and reading a paragraph at random. Reading two paragraphs in order, you will probably pick up context and reach level two. Middle schoolers who hope to earn an ‘A’ grade typically reach level 3, Application, on a regular basis. Glibly making crap up, on the other hand, generally won’t net you better than a gentleman’s ‘D’.
***Update***
Note the correction. Also, below the fold, I have reprinted with permission a summary that Tom sent me by email last night.
Wednesday Night Open Thread
Just got back from a charity benefit for breast cancer awareness that had the worst band since the Wedding Singer.
And I’m pretty sure Tammy will back me up on this.
*** Update ***
The ferocious lion, after chasing feathered prey seemingly attached to a stick and always somehow able to escape his grasp, feasts on the carcass of a dead tuna:
I may be watching too much of the Planet Earth series.