24: The Feature Film Delayed (at least)

I just read a report that said that everything seemed to be in place for a 24 feature film, but Fox rejected the script.

I have a feeling that if this movie doesn't get made soon, it won't get made at all, because this is the kind of situation where you have to strike while the iron is hot... because people forget about a series after a while, so the return of Jack Bauer in a feature film might not have the same impact in 2-5 years that it would have during the upcoming summer for instance.

Yes, there is talk of Tony Scott being involved and such, but while everyone is trying to put a positive spin on this, I think the script being rejected is likely going to be the first step in the process of the project finally getting killed by studio executives... at least for theatrical release.

But I know there are a lot of people who want more Bauer action, but honestly, I am fine with the way the show ended. Of all the finales I saw over the past few years, it was one of the more satisfying conclusions, and I am prepared to live with that ending.

A little January update, Bloodbowl and competitions

Well I'm still writing my damn "paper" for school so I won't be able to return to daily updates for another week/10 days. But of course, my itch to paint is killing me and as my buddy Calle got hold of a pile of Blood Bowl miniatures and ordered a Blood Bowl board from CT scenics I had to jump on this little side project.

I only tried out BB a year ago , once, couldn't focus so I didn't get a good idea of how well the game was working or if it was really fun. However just a few days ago I got Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition for PC and have been playing it (human team like the team I will play IRL) - it's crazy good!

So I'm really looking forward to try it out IRL agains my buddy's Halfling team or his human nuns lol!

This is my test model, I don't have an Ogre (yet) so my team will be about 14-15 humans. Will convert one or two with huge gloves to become "catchers". Here's a "Blitzer" for my Altdorf Crusaders. Traded my Sumo Bodyguards for these models so I didn't have to spend any money - which is great.

What else is new-

West Wind is running a new painting competition: "Character".
You can enter with any character from the West Wind range, and it can be painted prior to the competition as well. Each person may submit up to 3 entries. I'm thinking about buying and painting a new character but also entered with Crash Dixon to be on the safe side (as I'm swamped in piled up painting projects thanks to school....). The competition ends in January so hurry up and submit your entry there is a prize for the 1st place.

You can submit your entry in this thread ( you have to register on the forum first ): http://secretsofthethirdreich.com/forums/index.php?topic=2976.0




Uncle Mike's / Strange Aeons is also having a new competition. Design a "Quest" scenario and the best entry will be rewarded with some nice stuff. Keep an eye out on the Lead Adventure forum for more information. http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=25113.0



My own projects then, I have a few models to paint for Combat Zone before I can give you guys a review of the rules. I have a bunch of Strange Aeons miniatures from Uncle Mikes that need some paint - among them some of the "to be released" new stuff I won as during the Brush Off competition in December. And of course at least 11 more models for Blood Bowl. It will be a very busy and hopefully productive January once I'm done with this crap for school :-)


Edit: I almost forgot, this is actually quite awesome. While playing Battles of Westeros around christmas I found that I was missing 2 Stark Cavalry miniatures, I know I have not lost them and this was the only scenario using all cavalry. I contacted Fantasy Flight Games customer service on December 26th and got an answer a few days ago that they would send me the two missing models. For a big corporation I found the service to be very good and quick especially regarding these two tiny components that they will ship all the way to Sweden. Thumbs up for FFG.

I pick Caitlin

Just one more end-of-year retrospective. I realize reminiscing isn't required just because the calendar turns over. But I couldn't resist Carrie Grosvenor's poll on the top game show moments for 2010.

This post's title probably tells you how I voted. Caitlin Burke's incredible one-letter solve on Wheel of Fortune obviously got my ballot. The solve was just a stunner when I watched, and it doesn't seem any less stunning in YouTube replays.

Right now Roger Craig's one-day record on Jeopardy is leading the pack in votes. Nothing against Roger, but sooner or later the one-day record was bound to fall. Sooner or later, though, such an out-of-the-blue solve on WoF wasn't bound to happen.

Week 33: Pageant of the Transmundane

Well, delaying this award a week for the Christmas holidays seemed to be rather beneficial for me, as I got to see a lot of weird stuff.

So when I stumbled upon a video that has been making the rounds the past couple of weeks. I just happened to find it at GameRanx, so they get the award this time out.

In this case, it is a wonderful reimagining of the Mario Brothers as characters in the Grand Theft Auto universe/style. Awesome stuff.

And since this week's winning entry has to do with Mario, I thought this old favorite would be the most appropriate image.

Congrats to the crew at GameRanx. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Common Core Math Standards: Worse for Our Kids and Millions of Dollars Wasted?

A major decision is going to be made by this session of the Washington State legislature--one that will profoundly affect math education in our state and one that could cost the state tens or hundreds of millions of dollars at at a time when budgets are extraordinarily tight. This decision is flying under the radar of most of the media and many politicians.

The decision? Should Washington State adopt the new "national" Common Core math standards produced by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, giving up our new and highly enhanced math standards adopted in 2008.

This is important, so stay with me.

A little history first. As described in numerous media reports and national studies, the performance of U.S. students in math is lagging that of students in many other nations. And I have certainly seen math deficiencies increase while I have been teaching at the UW. If we are to remain a leading technological nation this cannot continue. Now the reasons for this decline are really not hard to find, ranging from many teachers have insufficient knowledge in mathematics, poor math standards in many states, trendy new-age instructional ideas (e.g., "Discovery" and "Integrated" mathematics) in vogue in schools of education, and yes, issues of student discipline, motivation and family support.

Recently, we have made substantial progress in our state, including the adoption of much-improved state math standards, the rejection of "Discovery Math" in many districts (e.g., Shoreline, Bellevue) and the acquisition of very good new books in some of these districts. There are, of course, some disaster districts, such as Seattle and Issaquah, who insist on retaining some of the worst textbooks and are providing their kids with an inferior math education. But overall, we are in a better place than a few years ago.

A number of well-meaning groups, such as the Gates Foundation and some in the Obama administration, have concluded that the U.S. math deficiency should be addressed by adopting national math standards. Now a major issue for such standards is that the Federal Government does not have authority over education, that being one of the powers retained by the states. To deal with this "problem" the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers established a group of mathematicians, educators, and curriculum specialists to put together a set of national Common Core math standards, standards that were released last year. (As I will discuss later, these standards are not well written, lack any associated assessments, and are completely untested.)



Without any real regulatory authority to push these standards into local districts, the Obama Administration has dangled a large financial carrot in front of the financially strapped states--- hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal "Race to the Top" initiative. In fact, states have been so desperate that many have agreed to adopt the new Common Core math standards sight unseen and untested as part of their applications for Race to the Top (RtTT) cash.

In a bid to get some of the RtTT money, Washington provisionally adopted the standards last year (Senate Bill 6696), and that the legislation allows our Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to adopt the Common Core standards if the legislature this year does nothing to stop it. In other words, we are going to go with Common Core if the legislature doesn't act this session to delay or stop it.

Ironically, Washington State's application to the Race to the Top (RtTT) program was declined for a number of reasons, including our unwillingness to take on another RtTT requirement--adopting charter schools. So we have agreed to replace our new excellent math standards, standards given an "A" by the Fordham Foundation and adopted in 2008, with an untested new program, and we will get none of the funds we were after.

But it is even worse than that--there are huge costs in switching to the Common Core standards. Moving to our new 2008 standards, the state spent over 30 million dollars in training over one year. Certainly, the switch to the Common Core standards could equal or exceed such costs. And what about changing millions of textbooks for nearly a million WA State students to be consistent with the new standards? Hundreds of millions of dollars? All of this in a state which is critically short of funds, where K-12 and universities are taking major cuts, and where the social safety net is being frayed by major cutbacks. Folks, this doesn't make sense.

Now are the new Common Core standards better than the current ones enjoyed in our state? The answer is a clearly no. As noted before, the Fordham Foundation rated ours higher and a review by the state math watchdog group, wheresthemath.com, has documented a number of problems Common Core compared to our current standards. Some examples:

(1) Common Core standards are extraordinarily difficult to read and decipher, a critical requirement for any standard. It is will be very difficult for most teachers to understand what they need to be teaching--which is a huge problem. Want an example? Here is an example of a fifth grade Common Core standard:

Interpret the product (a/b) × q as a parts of a partition of q into b equal parts; equivalently, as the result of a sequence of operations a × q ÷ b. For example, use a visual fraction model to show (2/3) × 4 = 8/3, and create a story context for this equation. Do the same with (2/3) × (4/5) = 8/15. (In general, (a/b) × (c/d) = ac/bd.)

and plenty are a lot worse than this. On the other hand, our current standards have far greater clarity.

(2) Common Core delays teaching many basic mathematical ideas, from essential mathematical operations to algebra.

More problems are described in the links at the bottom of this blog.

As noted above, there have been no pilots or tests of these new standards. No proof that they enhance student performance. Can you imagine pushing a new national math standard without insuring that students learn better with them? An extraordinary mistake.

Assessments of new standards determine what will be taught and how it will be taught (we learned this to our sorrow with the ill-fated WASL!). Assessments for the new standards have not yet been created, so there is no way to evaluate this crucial component.

There, of course, is a political dimension to all this. In essence it represents the transfer of local prerogatives on educational standards to a national entity, an issue of of concern to some. If the national standards and assessments WERE better, would we want to give up local determination of this issue? I wont debate that issue in this blog. In addition, it is not clear who will control the evolving Common Core standards. A number of people involved in the "reform" and "discovery" math movement are active in it--what if they gained control? Could this end up a huge national disaster?

So we have basically two choices:

(1) We can continue with the adoption of the new, unproven Common Core math standards, standards that are inferior to what we have now. We will then be committed to spending hundreds of millions of new dollars on this transition...money we really don't have. If the legislature doesn't act, this is what will happen.

(2) We can decide to wait. Stay with OUR new State math standards that are now in place, with all their advantages. Watch carefully and see if some of the Common Core issues noted above are resolved. Our State can remain engaged with national efforts, but we wait to see if Common Core evolves. I believe this is the only logical and prudent course of action. To do so, the legislature must take positive action to delay implementation of Common Core or revoke its adoption (this mean revocation of SB 6696, Sec 601, which passed last year). Thus, it is important that each of you contact your legislators to let them know you feelings on this critical issue.

Legislative Hotline ist 1.800.562.6000.

To find a list of state legislator e-mail addresses go to http://www.leg.wa.gov/pages/home.aspx

It is time for the Governor, Superintendent Randy Dorn, and leaders in the State legislature to show some leadership on this critical issue. And well-funded groups like the Gates Foundation and State business groups need to take a more informed approach. It is so frustrating that those with the power to deal with this issue, fall back on the same tired ideas and listen to the same educational consultants. Schools of Education are generally a big part of the problem, not the solution.

It is perhaps an American deficiency that we jump for quick fixes, without taking the time to carefully determine and address the real core problems. The rush to push untested Common Core math standards on states around the country is a real symptom of our inability to solve our big problems. It is time to do better and we can do so in WA State by not joining the stampede. Some states, such as Texas, Virgina, Alaska and Minnesota have already declined to participate. There is no reason to rush into this and many reasons to wait.

Some links with further information:

http://pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/100223_why_race_to_the_middle.pdf

http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/common_core_standards.pdf

http://soundmath.wetpaint.com/page/Washington+State+%26+the+Common+Core+State+Standards

http://edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2010/201007_state_education_standards_common_standards/Washington.pdf

http://www.wheresthemath.com/

What could have been

New Years Day is a nice time for looking back. Luckily, at least a few disasters have been averted in human history. One of them almost overtook GSN in 2001, before president Michael Fleming was relieved of his duties in favor of the pictured Rich Cronin. From a post of mine on the GSN Classics board...

Just rummaging around the web, I found this gem from March, 2001: Game Show Network Debuts New Development Slate for 2001; Original Programming Continues to Represent a Significant and Growing Portion of GSN's Program Line Up. I won't quote all of the article, but it shows what might have happened if the change in administration hadn't occurred:

"Game Show Network (GSN), cable's only 24-hour programming service devoted exclusively to game shows and interactive game play, continues its commitment to creating new and innovative programming by unveiling a new development slate for 2001. Titles included are Shoot for Love, Hell Yes I'm a Redneck, Billboard Living, E-Match and Grab the Mic. All shows are being developed as half-hour programs with interactive elements and will begin rolling out in late spring.

"'A year ago, we created a mandate to fill the program schedule with 50% original content by 2003 while providing unique and entertaining game shows in the process,' stated Kristin Peace, vice president, programming, GSN. 'This new development slate represents our determination to meet that goal.'"

Fortunately, the new development slate never got off the ground. The description of Hell Yes I'm a Redneck makes Lingo look like a timeless classic (which it is, actually). But the story reveals how long ago the decline in pre-1990 material began. This has been going on for a long, long time.

UPDATE: I can't resist one show description, because it sounds like something out of The Onion: "Billboard Living places teams of contestants on billboards across the country, where they will live and compete against one another for prizes...and toiletries." Yeah, I wanna live on a billboard for toiletries. Reminds me of that old Johnny Carson joke about Bowling for Towels.

Other poster: Hell Yes I'm A Redneck.......... Did they get Jeff Foxworthy to host?

This was pre-Foxworthy. I vaguely remember a GSN guy who used to post on these boards. He mentioned this show as part of the horrible lineup the previous regime was planning. I had never seen this press release before today, but now I understand what that GSN guy was talking about.

Truth to tell, a lot of godawful stuff did get to air back then, like Burt Luddin and Extreme Gong. So I can only imagine what this batch of originals would have looked like. The Boden originals which eventually replaced this development slate weren't all great, but they shined like gold in comparison. Even Friend or Foe looks good compared to Billboard Living.

For Your New Year's Hangover

Drink a lot of fluids and get some rest, y'all.