Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Every Number Tells a Story

It's almost back-to-school time. So let's look at the Richardson ISD by the numbers. Specifically, the numbers from SchoolDigger.com: "K-12 school performance data at your fingertips." RISD's overall numbers can tell any story you want.


"Steady as she goes": RISD consistently ranks in the top half of all school districts in Texas.

"Sound the alarm": RISD dropped from the 86th percentile in 2010 to the 56th percentile in 2015.

"Back on Course": RISD climbed from 56th percentile in 2015 to 72nd percentile in 2017.

So have at it. What's your story?

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

POTD: Ready to Cast Off

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is of the cruise ship terminal in Galveston, Texas.

Monday, August 7, 2017

Dunkirk (2017)

IMDB
Dunkirk (2017): Lots of action. Nameless, interchangeable characters. Little dialog or historical context. But powerful climactic scene. B+











Friday, August 4, 2017

OTBR: A Deer Farm in Australia

Latitude: S 37° 20.592
Longitude: E 144° 22.386

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that last month I visited vicariously (not actually) that are "off the blue roads".

Thursday, August 3, 2017

POTD: A Streetcar Named Riverfront

From 2016 12 15 Louisiana

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the riverfront in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Riverfront is not as poetic as Desire, but the Streetcar named Desire was converted to a bus line in 1948. Sigh.