Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

IMDB

Star Wars VII (2015): Felt like a scene-by-scene remake of original. Like a greatest hits collection covered by a new band. No freshness. C+

POTD: Stairway to Heaven

From 2016 02 09 Jaipur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Jantar Mantar monument of Jaipur, India, which is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments built almost 300 years ago.

Really, today's photo-of-the-day is just an excuse for me to talk about Led Zeppelin's 1971 song Stairway to Heaven, the subject of a 2016 plagiarism lawsuit. It's sad how one of the greatest rock songs of all time has been reduced to an ugly spat over money.

Two Days, One Night (2014)

IMDB

Two Days, One Night (2014): Depressed woman fights (kind of) to save her job. Drama with no drama. Marion Cotillard is sadly underused. C-

Falling STAAR

"Messy STAAR season causes education commissioner to scrap 5th-, 8th-grade results." Can standardized testing in Texas schools fall any lower? That's a rhetorical question.

Standardized testing in Texas has a long history. It predates even the George W. Bush governorship in the 1990s. Standardized testing and accountability was given credit for narrowing the achievement gap between whites and minorities. The New York Times had good things to say about Texas in 1999 when Governor Bush was leveraging Texas's reputation in his own bid for the White House.

This has stemmed partly from a unique accountability system that predates Mr. Bush's tenure and requires all Texas schools to give an array of standardized tests and record the results for each subgroup -- white, black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged. The schools are judged on the performance of each group separately. Other states give tests but no other uses the performance of subgroups separately to determine success.

Source: New York Times, May 28, 1999.

Late Spring in the Steger Garden (2016)

From Flowers

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

IMDB

Sunset Blvd. (1950): Billy Wilder classic. As out of date today as silent movies were when this was made. But dead-on casting and cameos. C+

POTD: Biff Henderson

From 2016 02 09 Jaipur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from City Palace in Jaipur, India. In case you ever wondered whatever happened to Biff Henderson, stage manager for "The Late Show with David Letterman," ever since Dave retired, well he's working as a security guard at the City Palace. Or maybe the guard only looks like Biff Henderson. In any case, here's another example of the nice, bright colors that make India so photogenic.

Bonus photo after the jump.

RISD Shell Game

Last week, I brought up my fear that magnet schools in the Richardson ISD were leading to an increase in segregation along socio-economic lines. I didn't have data to test whether my fear is warranted (and I still don't) because as far as I know, the RISD doesn't make such data easily accessible to the public. As long as that's the case, my fear, grounded or not, persists.

The feedback to my article suggests that magnet schools may only be a small component of a larger problem with transfers.

POTD: Beckoning Doorways

From 2016 02 09 Jaipur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Amber Fort in Jaipur, India. This sprawling complex has more courtyards, halls, chambers, and passageways than you can count. There's always another treat through each beckoning doorway.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Review: Seveneves

Amazon

From Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson:

The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."

What a great first line. Unfortunately, it's the best sentence of Neal Stephenson's novel "Seveneves." Still, this long novel features a global crisis that prompts some what-if questions that can be very entertaining to ponder (as long as it's only fiction).

After the jump, my review.