Left at Interamna . . .

"The SAT is a scam. It has been around for 50 years. It has never measured anything. And it continues to measure nothing. And the whole game is that everybody who does well on it, is so delighted by their good fortune that they don’t want to attack it. And they are the people in charge. Because of course, the way you get to be in charge is by having high test scores. So it’s this terrific kind of rolling scam that every so often, somebody sort of looks and says—well, you know, does it measure intelligence? No. Does it predict college grades? No. Does it tell you how much you learned in high school? No. Does it predict life happiness or life success in any measure? No. It’s measuring nothing."

—

John Katzman, founder of The Princeton Review (via thepeacefulterrorist)

But all those test prep folks sure do make a shitload of money off it.

(via eshusplayground)

I work for an SAT tutoring company, and their approach is, “Look, the SAT sucks. It’s downright evil. But it’s predictable.” I get it. It’s stupid. It doesn’t even measure your intelligence or your grades or your knowledge. It measures your ability to take a test. It measures you ability to read carefully and follow instructions and apply what you know. Seriously, it’s formulaic, and I shit you not, about half of the answers are designed to trick you.

But what else can we do? How can we assess millions of kids from all over the country, from different places and cultures and classes and schools? Curriculum is different, courses are different, grading systems are different. There needs to be a universal baseline, even one as unreliable as the SAT.

And, to be fair, it could be a lot worse. It could be like Suneung, the South Korean SAT-esque thing. You think four hours of critical reading, writing, and math is bad? This thing is nine fucking hours of Korean grammar, math (and not like algebra - we’re talking calculus), social studies, science, English, an additional foreign language, and “vocational education.” Oh, and the rest of the country basically shuts down on the single day each year that the test is given. Business open later so that all the roads will be clear for students, who are often escorted by police. The freaking stock market open later. They shut down air travel. I’m serious. Planes are grounded and South Korea becomes a no-fly zone to reduce noise pollution. That. Is fucking. Intense.

(via the-cinnamon-peelers-wife)

darkw00ds:

Frozen Lake Lily - Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado by Lightvision [光視覺] on Flickr.

darkw00ds:

Picardie by Jurriaan Vogel on Flickr.

(Source: bruisedsparrow)

(Source: lepetitgodet)

Camera: Nikon D60
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure: 1/30th
Focal Length: 18mm

mpdrolet:

Wayne Bremser

(Source: poopinginschool)

"You could lock me in a room and put a gun to my head and I still wouldn’t be able to come up with a TED talk."

— (via magnificentruin)

exhumations:

Lago di carezza (by Vogelbetrachter)

goldenwallen:

Xua Lei Porcelain crushed Cans

http://espvisuals-art.blogspot.

hk/2011/06/xue-lei-porcelain-cans.html

catsandthelaw:

satdeshret:

malformalady:

A tongue of lava oozes out from beneath the recently cooled crust of a flow. The silica contained within, reflects the early morning sunlight, giving its surface a glassy sheen.

Photo and caption credit: Bruce Omori

A part of me wants to touch it it’s so pretty… But then the rational side of my brain smacks that part of me with a baseball bat.

Well in all fairness you’d probably burn yourself before you managed to touch it.

spookapple:

jackvessalius:

look what we have here

theartofanimation:

Danil Shunkov