Random

> Anyone feeling led to buy this portable chapel for MasterPiece Church? I can see all kinds of opportunities. ~ link

> Against homework:

A child who has been boxed up six hours in school might spend the next four hours in study, but it is impossible to develop the child’s intellect in this way. The laws of nature are inexorable. By dint of great and painful labor, the child may succeed in repeating a lot of words, like a parrot, but, with the power of its brain all exhausted, it is out of the question for it to really master and comprehend its lessons. The effect of the system is to enfeeble the intellect even more than the body. We never see a little girl staggering home under a load of books, or knitting her brow over them at eight o’clock in the evening, without wondering that our citizens do not arm themselves at once with carving knives, pokers, clubs, paving stones or any weapons at hand, and chase out the managers of our common schools, as they would wild beasts that were devouring their children. ~ Scientific American, October 1860 (via)

> Here is your chance to figure out how to fix the budget. Once you've got it under control go ahead and share the solution online -- if you dare. Ah... and good luck with it all! ~ NY Times

> There are now 2.2 million Japanese Manga Bible series books in print. ~ link

> I don't really care to know where you are every few minutes or if you've suddenly become the mayor of a fictional municipality in some coffee shop. And apparently I'm not alone. Pew research is reporting that "despite all the hype, the use of location-based services is actually declining in America." ~ link

> Students who use Twitter get higher grades than those who do not. ~ CHE