Video of the Day

This certainly looks real and was especially resonant for me

Years ago, my colleague Mike Cobb suggested that the thing to do on the first day of class is to smash a student’s cell phone to have them turn the ringer off all semester.  He never followed through.  I, however, took an old cell phone and would recruit a confederate before class and plant the old phone on them.  Then, shortly after detailing the cell phone policy, confederate student would make their actual phone ring and I would then pick up and smash the old phone they were also holding.  Worked like a charm– damn did I get some amazing reactions.  Of course, I always admitted the truth within a few seconds.  I’ve largely stopped doing this, though.  I don’t think college students even talk on their phones anymore– they’re just there to text and check facebook during class.

The only chart of the day you’ll ever need

Heck, I think I should bookmark this one.  Via Ezra’s blog:

Got it?  It’s the health care spending, stupid!  Anything else is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  Though, with social security, some modest re-arranging would be helpful.  To pretend our long-term budget problems are otherwise (e.g., “welfare!”  ”social programs”) is to be either willfully ignorant or willfully dishonest.