The annual Beloit College Mindset List is out...and once again, I feel old

Wear a wristwatch? Use e-mail? Not for Class of '14: Annual list of 75 items that shape incoming freshmen's cultural references released


The Beloit College Mindset List collects various aspects of popular culture and other items that incoming college freshmen simply have never experienced or won't remember. The purpose is to be more mindful when connecting with this young people when teaching. The unintended effect is to make the rest of us feel old. Here's some doozies from the latest list:

• Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
  
• Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.
  
• A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.
  
• Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
  
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
  
• They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
  
• Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.
  
• Nirvana is on the classic oldies station. [Which isn't all that surprising, as Kurt Cobain was born the same year I was--1967.]

There are 75 items on the list. Check them out and see how old you feel.

'Course, Rowan Atkinson (an odd little man) is pretty darn funny, too

Here is his story of Jesus and the water turned to wine:

I love Catherine Tate

YKWIA showed me this video awhile back...but it popped up in my subscriptions and I had to watch it again. It's not quite on the same par as the hire car, but oh, the horrors!!

Interested in learning Latin?

Evan der Milner has been podcasting Latin lessons for quite some time, but now he has a channel on YouTube that includes videos which start out slowly and provide viewers with oral Latin lessons. Check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/evan1965

The course is provided for free, but you can also support Evan's work with donations, as well as tap into his other resources at his website.

Here's his description of the course:

Suitable for beginners, this unique course teaches Latin slowly from the ground up, using spoken Latin, while keeping a firm grip on grammar. The first 2 lessons have some English. The rest are only in Latin. You will need to study the course in sequence, as each lesson follows the preceding one in a progressive order.
As the course is taught totally in Latin, you need no other language.
The course will teach you to read and write and speak Latin.
Dictation and writing exercises will be introduced later on in the course.

Please visit latinum.mypodcast.com, for the audio only version of this course (with English.)

This course largely follows Adler's "Practical Grammar of the Latin Language" (1856), and various Renaissance grammar texts, such as Comenius (1656). These may profitably be consulted by the student (see Latinum for links).

Here's the first lesson, where he goes over questions involving a pen, a ribbon, and a hat, and whether he or the viewer has each item:

Let's see

1. Game notes finished...check!
   
2. Game notes transferred to Kindle...check!
   
3. Blog correction made...check!
   
4. Dinner eaten...check!
   
5. Digital voice recorder found...check!
   
6. Digital voice recorder and batteries in purse...check! (Although must charge batteries tomorrow; forgot to do so today)
   
7. Kindle wireless turned off to save battery (Brandon used it today to check some things online, since his computer has died)...check!
   
8. Kindle in purse...check!
   
9. Set cable DVR to record the first four episodes of series 2 of 'Being Human' for tomorrow...check!
   
10. Check bank balance for paying bills tomorrow night...check!
    

Time to go to bed. I have to get up at 5 am and take the 5:49 bus over to prepare for the game. Good night.

Okay, there's cute...

and there's baby meerkat cute:

Cool

Robot to expose hidden secrets of pyramid: Device will unlock Egyptian room that has been sealed for 4,500 years

Following in the footsteps of Howard Carter and Abbot and Costello, a specialized robot will penetrate deeper into the Great Pyramid of Giza than ever before. The robot, part of a years long exploration called the Djedi Project, will explore a shaft inaccessible to a previous robot, unlocking a room that has remain sealed for 4,500 years.

Here's some more information on the Djedi Project from Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Aegypt.

Awww...

'Jarhead' bear gets out of a jam in Florida

A bear cub in Florida, which had a plastic jar stuck on its head for at least 10 days, has now been freed.

The cub, affectionately nicknamed "Jarhead", got its head stuck in the container while rooting through rubbish around the town of Weirsdale.

The cub was days away from death as he had not been able to eat or drink, biologists who rescued the bear said.

They sedated the mother bear before grabbing the cub, pinning his ears back and prising off the container.

There is a picture of the poor thing walking along with its head inside a jar. I'm glad they managed to free him.

Thank you Brandon and Angenette

for coming out on a night of nasty weather to give me a ride home. Although the rain has mostly stopped, the thunder's still going and it's very muggy. I appreciate it.

My friend YKWIA has requested a retraction/correction

The other day when I was talking about Twitter's new SMS features on cell phones, I used the phrase 'normal phone' to distinguish from 'smart phones'. I should have, of course, said 'normal cell phone'. As he reminded me, a normal phone is what many people now call a landline. I don't think cell phones have taken over landlines completely in terms of 'normalcy'. So, I stand corrected.