Source: Airbnb.
Complaints about Airbnb, Vrbo, etc., aren't new. On Monday, the Richardson City Council reviewed options for regulating short-term rental properties in Richardson. Why did it take so long? The wheels of government turn slowly, but the wheels are turning. That might not result in the strong actions some might hope for or expect.
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The Sentinels, by Carolyn Chilton CasasHow the trees have grown
around us,
with a surplus of winter
and spring rains.
...
The trees form a sacred den,
shelter us from external elemental ravages.
Sentinels of sentient existence,
wise keepers cradling
my spirit in their limbs.Source: The Sentinels.
After the jump, more random thoughts.
Source: Virtual Builders Exchange.
UT-Dallas in Richardson (my new name for our university) announced that groundbreaking on the Crow Museum of Asian Art will happen in about a month.
Yesterday, I analyzed one key question from the forum of Richardson ISD District 2 school board candidates Sherry Clemens, Vanessa Pacheco, and Eron Linn (incumbent), hosted by the Berkner High School PTA. Today, reading between the lines, I speculate that we might have learned some significant news from another question. At least, it changes the odds that I would place on the job search for a new superintendent.
The Berkner High School PTA hosted a forum of Richardson ISD District 2 school board candidates Sherry Clemens, Vanessa Pacheco, and Eron Linn (incumbent). There were many good questions, but one audience question in particular distilled the whole election down to its essential question. It was a yes/no question. The three candidates answered, in effect, yes, no, and don't blame me.
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Today's photo-of-the-day is from Richardson, Texas. It shows one homeowner's solidarity with Ukraine. On the other side of the fence from the Ukrainian flag is a threatening pumpkin-headed skeleton. The homeowner says the placement is coincidence, but I really think the skeleton should have a sign labeled "Russia" around its neck.
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Today's photo-of-the-day is from Richardson, Texas. The accident happened on Plano Rd at the entrance to the shopping center on the northeast corner of Plano and Belt Line. There were five passengers in the overturned car. The youngest was a three year old girl in a car seat who found herself hanging upside down. Richardson emergency responders had to help all five passengers exit the vehicle. Nobody in that car or the other car involved were injured. The two cars, on the other hand, were probably total losses. I noticed that the overturned car had a temporary license tag. You know what they say: a new car loses 20% of its value the minute you drive it off the dealer's lot.
Living Solar Panels, by Ash GardnerTrees can live for five thousand years.
The oldest ones saw the birth of Cleopatra.
The astronauts, the moon landings.
They are living solar panels.
No-one can speak to the sun.
We can't understand what it is saying.
It speaks in wavelengths we can't interpret.
But trees and corals will translate it for everyone.Source: Living Solar Panels.
The Academy Awards will be given out Sunday, March 27, 2022. I've seen all the nominees for Best Picture. That means my opinion means something. Right?
I've ranked the movies in order of my preference for "Best Picture." The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science uses ranked choice voting (RCV) to ensure that the winner has broad support throughout the Academy members. I wish US political elections used a similar system (or perhaps some form of proportional voting system).
My ranking of the Oscar nominees is based on the grades I gave the movies immediately after seeing them. In case of ties, I ordered them by my considered judgment today. Note this is not my prediction of which movie will win (cough, CODA), but for which I would vote, had I a vote.
The envelope please. The winner of "The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures" goes to...
The Texas Tribune hosted a forum, Superintendent Spotlight, that featured three school superintendents from north Texas. They were Michael Hinojosa (Dallas), Kent Scribner (Fort Worth), and Dr. Jeannie Stone, former superintendent of Richardson ISD. The discussion was moderated by The Texas Tribune's Evan Smith. This is the first time that I have seen that Dr. Stone has talked on camera since her departure from the RISD in December, 2021. Read on for Dr. Stone on learning during the pandemic, on mask mandates, on critical race theory, on equity/diversity/inclusion, on book banning, and on why she quit.
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We've been following this story for almost a year. It was in April of 2021 that Richardson Police Officer Kayla Walker spoke at a City Council meeting to allege an illegal ticket quota system imposed on RPD officers. The City denied the allegation. Now Officer Walker and David Conklin have filed a lawsuit against the City. The Dallas Morning News and others have the basics of the story. The lawsuit itself can be found on the Dallas County Courts portal. It contains the details.
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By the way, the two options being presented to the public were drawn up by the City Plan Commission. Oh, it wasn't called the City Plan Commission. It was called the Council District Boundary Commission. Was it just a coincidence that the latter was made up of exactly the members of the former? Hardly. No other option was even considered. The City Council had an opportunity to live up to their adopted goal to "Promote avenues for public engagement and input," including "Evaluate opportunities to promote service of boards and commissions and to broaden the diversity of applicants." They could have recruited members of the public who haven't been picked for all the other boards and commissions. This could have been a good avenue for broadening public engagement and input. Like the headline says, the district boundaries are meaningless. What's the risk in picking some newbies for the commission? It's not like the commission can adopt anything. Adoption is still left to the City Council. But nyah. Those goals were always more PR exercise than promises to live up to. So go ahead. Study the two options like it means anything. Flip a coin. Pick either one.
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The Swing, by Robert Louis StevensonHow do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!Source: The Swing.
That man should have dominion “over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,” is a prophecy that has
hardened into fact. Choose just about any metric you want and it tells
the same story. People have, by now, directly transformed more than
half the ice-free land on earth—some twenty-seven million square
miles—and indirectly half of what remains."
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Kolbert opens her book with the prophecy of man's dominion over all the earth. Until very recently, that fact was considered an unalloyed good thing, a sign of God's favor, a sign of human progress. Only recently have we recognized the downsides to our dominion. Kolbert closes her book with this summary, "This has been a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems." Those problems were originally introduced by us exercising our dominion.
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The culture wars being waged in state legislatures around the country are making teaching an impossible profession.
There’s a rock, and a hard place, and then there’s a classroom. Consider the dilemma of teachers in New Mexico. In January, the month before the state’s Public Education Department finalized a new social-studies curriculum that includes a unit on inequality and justice in which students are asked to “explore inequity throughout the history of the United States and its connection to conflict that arises today,” Republican lawmakers proposed a ban on teaching “the idea that social problems are created by racist or patriarchal societal structures and systems.” The law, if passed, would make the state’s own curriculum a crime.Source: The New Yorker.
This all reminds me of when I used to "help" my sons with their history lessons in elementary school.
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Today I learned education is an art, not a science. Before I get to how I learned that, let's go back to last week, when I couldn't understand why Richardson ISD needed to hire a consultant to develop an RISD Graduate Profile. Here's a profile that I offer to RISD, for free. A graduate is a person who is curious. Period. That's it. If you aren't curious, you haven't been educated. If you are curious, you're set for lifelong learning. QED.
