Free Solo (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Free Solo (2018): Documentary of first free climb of El Capitan. Fascinating look at psyche of a thrill seeker driven to take insane risks. Nice guy, but by watching am I encouraging behavior that could kill him? Should I feel guilty? Still there's that stunning photography. A-

POTD: Opera Abstract

From 2018 03 27 Sydney

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Sydney, Australia. Give yourself 50 points if you knew it is a closeup of the Opera House's roof.

Bonus photos after the jump.

POTD: Beach Bums at Bondi Beach

From 2018 03 27 Sydney

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Sydney, Australia's Bondi Beach. Sydney has it all — great climate, great harbor, great sights (Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge dominate views), a walkable central business district, and if that's not enough, even a great beach.

Bonus photos after the jump.

POTD: Bike Share in Sydney

From 2018 03 27 Sydney

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Argyle Cut in Sydney, Australia. In March when we visited there was a booming bike share business in Sydney. Six months later, I can't say. Ofo, the owner of the yellow bike in this photo, has abandoned Sydney "to focus on priority markets internationally." Supposedly, bike share is still available from other companies. But the shakeout from the Wild West days of many companies flooding the streets with bikes appears to have already happened.

RISD TRE: Lessons and Roadmap

In a tax ratification election (TRE), voters in Richardson ISD approved a tax rate increase by a ~7% margin. What should be the takeaways for the RISD board of trustees and district administration?

First and foremost, the district now should have enough revenue to run the schools for the next five years (with or without a solution to the root cause of the problem with school finance at the state level). So, execute. Give teachers that raise. Hire more special ed teachers. Expand Career and Technology programs. Increase security. Do all the things the district said were needed. That's the obvious takeaway. But we now ought to be able to turn our attention to other matters that might have been overlooked while we were focused on solving our local funding problems. I have a few suggestions, some easy, some hard.