Test 2

VERRRRRY COOL! Here's the teaser trailer:



Geektyrant has the additional details:

The show brings back classic characters like Gobo, Red, Boober, Mokey, Wembley, and Uncle Traveling Matt. “While the Fraggles might be in different parts of the Fraggle Rock caves, they can still find ways to have fun together, with music, silliness, special guests, and of course the help of devices created by the industrious Doozers called the Doozertubes.”

The first episode is titled “Shine On,” and it features new Doozertubes being delivered to the Fraggles’ caves, allowing them to come together for a favorite song “Shine On, Shine On Me.”

The new episodes are being produced by The Jim Henson Company, and executive produced by Halle Stanford and John Tartaglia. It’s explained that “in accordance with the current social distancing guidelines, Fraggle Rock: Rock On! is all shot on iPhone 11s from the homes of the production team and individual artists from all over the U.S.”

Love it! The Fraggles were something that I loved when I was younger (along with the Muppets - Jim Henson could do no wrong in my book). And now these adorable characters are returning to us on the Apple TV+ streaming platform.

Speaking of Apple TV+, a few weeks ago, at the very start of this new social distancing era, my family decided to give the new Apple streaming service a shot. After a couple of evenings on the couch and a few shows watched, I'd say that we are reasonably pleased (so far).

The Morning Show is probably the series that we've watched the most. It is the Jennifer Aniston/Steve Carell/Reese Witherspoon-led series that centers around a Today Show-like morning news program, and the behind-the-scenes goings-on when the male lead (Carell) is ousted for sexual misconduct.

The other program that we've checked out a few episodes of is Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet, a comedy that follows the developers of a highly successful video game as they try to make the game better without driving each other crazy.

But, aside from Fraggle Rock, the Apple TV+ programming that I'm most looking forward to is the upcoming Beastie Boys Story:



A live-action documentary directed by long-time friend of the band Spike Jonze that will premiere tomorrow on the streaming service.

...and you KNOW that I'll be back with a review after watching it, since I'm a life-long fan of the B-Boys.

Some more good news from John Krasinski. I particularly enjoyed the whole prom gig.

Lately, despite all of the coronavirus-related issues that are swirling about in the higher ed and admissions space, I am still seeing the regular complaints that I field this time of the year. Students and (more likely) parents call and write to us to tell the admission team just how upset they are that we didn't admit their student where they wanted. Or give them enough scholarship dollars. Or win that Fabergé egg at auction for a good price.

Wait. I think that last one was from a Roger Moore-infused James Bond movie.

Case in point: I had a mother send a monologue-worthy email to me the other day. The short version:

Dear Admissions Dude,

My daughter is awesome. How dare you not admit her to Penn State. I know that she just applied recently [in late March], but trust me - she's still super interested. She has been crying herself to sleep over your ignorance. She won't even eat her Pop Tarts for breakfast!

Do something about this grave injustice, and do it now.

Sincerely,
Student's Mom

Of course, I have grossly paraphrased here given that she wrote no less than 11 paragraphs.

But I have to say that this is not uncommon, and I do sympathize with students (and their parents). Over at the Georgia Tech admissions blog, Rick Clark has written about "it working out" for the better for students, and that being denied at their top choice (or choices) will not be the end of the world. Money:

Whether you are denied admission or you get in but ultimately don’t receive the financial aid package necessary for you to attend your top choice college, you will grow. My hope is you’ll be able to see these situations as opportunities rather than as disappointments. Use them as motivation. Anyone who is truly content, successful, and happy will not describe their life and journey as a predictable point-to-point path. Instead they’ll discuss bumps, turns, and moments of uncertainty along the way.

And that's a theme that I echoed in my response to the student (with a CC to the mother):

[Student], I am really sorry to hear that you've been taking your admission decision so hard. Admittedly, this is a stressful process and time of the year. Many high school seniors are going through the exact same feelings of stress and disappointment right now.

While it many not come as much consolation at this precise moment, I always tell students that are not admitted to the program or campus to which they had applied that "It works out". It may take a couple of months, or even a year, but eventually you'll find the right place for you (and, believe it or not, that might not be Penn State - and that's okay).

Years from now you'll look back on the successes that you've earned and realize that things worked out just fine.

In short, it will be okay. Really, it will.

Because - and here's the BIG SECRET folks - the reason that you were not admitted to that favorite college on your list was most likely not related to your academic prowess. Rather, it likely had everything to do with space availability on campus. At Penn State we enroll approximately 8,000 first-year students at the University Park campus each fall. We receive upwards of 90,000 applications for those 8,000 spaces. Even though it's a big (huge!) campus, we only have so many spaces to grant admission. We simply cannot admit every student that applies - we don't have room!

[okay, okay - if you're a straight 'D' student in high school your deny decision maaaay have had something to do with your academic record... but I digress]

But that doesn't mean that you're a terrible student, not at all. It just means that you will have to consider other options.

Most of us in the noble profession of college admissions are not trying to keep students out of our respective institutions. Instead, we want to be inclusive of as many students as we can, but are also trying to craft a class of students each fall that will persist for four years and graduate with a degree. Some institutions have more space on campus than others, and then the supply v. demand picture starts to come into focus.

All of this to simply say that Mick Jagger & The Rolling Stones got it right:

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you might find
You get what you need

Indeed.

Image via Walt Disney Studios

Uh, what?

Disneyland’s Avengers Campus takes place in a world where Thanos’ snap never happened, diverging from canon. Set for Disney’s California Adventure, the Marvel-themed destination will include Avengers Headquarters.

[...]

“We don’t want anyone to feel that there’s an apocalyptic threat to the end of humanity,” Fields said. He added that while there is a desire for Avengers Campus Park to feature some conflict, the form of that conflict should remain accessible to visitors of the attraction. Avengers Campus story lead Jillian Pagan elaborated further, noting that Avengers Campus Park does share history with the films but with a little more fluidity. “We live in a version of the multiverse where there are some characters who did not sacrifice themselves for us,” she noted.

The decision makes sense from a business standpoint. An attraction should appeal to large swaths of people. Sticking too closely to established canon would limit certain possibilities that would otherwise be available.

Okay, okay. I get it. Those of us that are comic fans know that the multiverse provides opportunities for alternate and differing realities. But, I've always labored under the idea that, while the highly successful "superhero" franchise films of late are based on their comic book source materials, that the producers and film companies didn't want to just please the hardcore fans. Rather, they want to make money.

As such, film makers want the end product to appeal to everyone. Perhaps that is the logic behind the move here (to have the Avengers Campus exist in a 'non-snap' world).

Given the events that took place in Endgame, this plan will also allow for some characters that should be dead to be part of the story (I'm thinking of Black Widow, as an example).

However, I guess it's all moot since the opening of this new theme park at Disney's California has been delayed due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic:

Disney’s Marvel-themed Avengers Campus was originally supposed to open at Disney California Adventure on July 18th, 2020. Well, it’s not surprising to learn that the opening of the attraction has been delayed. Now the Disneyland website says that it’s “Coming Soon”.

Well, no matter how you slice it - or when it will open, I'm sure that it will be awesome. I'm still feeling really impressed by how Galaxy's Edge turned out....

Some more great content that we can all use right now. I particularly enjoyed the sports section.

As I have detailed before, our family members are all big fans of Walt Diney World. As such, we (mostly the Wife and I) look for ways in our everyday lives to get little escapes to the Disney parks in between our family trips.

Whether it's a calming moment that we need, or some music to feed our souls, the Walt Disney World blog is trying to provide some cool stuff while we are all stuck at home.

Here are the JAMMitors (that can normally be found walking the grounds at Epcot) jamming at home:



You can check out some peaceful scenes (and sounds) from the parks here. I'm particularly fond of the Pandora environment. If you wear headphones and close your eyes, it's almost as if you're there....

They put up a ton of other cool content for your at-home needs like how to draw Disney characters, celebrity storytimes, and other cool stuff.

These are all great resources for folks with younger kids - or older kids! - to use while everyone is self-isolating during the coronavirus thing.

I've worked in the Undergraduate Admissions Office at Penn State for more than ten years now. In that time, I have had the distinct honor and pleasure of presenting to students, families, and high school counselors about the college search process - and Penn State specifically. Giving presentations has long-been one of my favorite parts of the gig, but with the whole world working remotely these days, we have had to move our presentations into a virtual format. With all of the other things that have been swirling about, I have not had the opportunity to give any presentations in the last couple of weeks.

The Penn State admissions community hosted a webinar on Thursday last week and invited high school counselors from around the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - and beyond - for a question-and-answer session regarding the impacts of COVID-19.

Yours Truly got to host the event (yay!), and hopefully provide some clarity for our partners in the counseling community. Here's a screenshot of the beginning of the presentation:

That's me, in my living room, in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen

We covered a whole host of topics ranging from where people can find resources and information about how Penn State is responding to the coronavirus pandemic to how schools moving to a pass/fail grading system for spring semester will have impacts on this year's seniors (as well as juniors, sophomore, etc. for the coming years).

Look, the remainder of this admissions cycle is going to be tough for students, families, and high school counselors (not to mention those of us on the higher ed side of the desk). The overall message that I tried to convey to our counseling colleagues was that - regardless of circumstances - we want to work with students in being flexible. We know that things are strange right now, and likely will be for some time to come.

We ended on an open Q&A forum for the counselors so that folks could ask whatever they wanted. It is my hope (and the shared hope of my colleagues that participated with me) that the webinar was helpful, even if the answers to several of the questions was, "I don't know, but we're working on it".

Our team will be hosting another event this coming week and it is my hope that we'll have even more answers to the questions posed by our friends "across the desk".

Now that we've been in this living secluded/self-isolation/working remotely for a few weeks, the daily chatter around my house has started to change. While the conversation still includes concerns for health and safety, we have also started to realize some of the benefits (hopefully?) of this whole social distancing thing.

Case in point, Mother Earth seems to be doing some healing as a result of us all staying the f**k at home:

“Nitrogen dioxide is produced by fossil fuel burning and therefore often used as an urban pollution tracer,” Barbara Dix, an atmospheric researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Earther in an email. “Burning fossil fuels directly emits a lot of nitric oxide and a little nitrogen dioxide (often referred to as NOx together), but the nitric oxide is rapidly converted into nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. Nitrogen dioxide can easily be measured by satellite.”

Given that fossil fuels power everything from cars to electricity, nitrogen dioxide satellite imagery really does show the impact covid-19 is having on society like no other dataset. There are clear signs of the virus’ impact all around the world, and we’ll dive into some U.S. examples below. But it’s also important to note a few small caveats as you scroll around the map and look at the before and after images.

The data presented here is a series of single-day snapshots. Weather patterns can blow pollution around and disperse it while rain and even the level of sunshine can further change readings taken by Sentinel-5P. There are also natural sources of nitrogen dioxide that can affect readings. The data in Google Earth Engine isn’t necessarily quality filtered. Dix noted that means clouds can mess with readings, which may be why on the interactive map there are some rougher-looking areas like northern New England in March or signs of pollution in the Seattle area where there may not be much. It will take researchers time to really dive into the data and filter it to get a fine-scale understanding of covid-19's impact on air pollution. Despite these caveats, the trends in many major cities around the U.S. are staggering and clearly at least in part tied to the changes forced by the covid-19 pandemic.

“The rapid decrease we see in nitrogen dioxide due to covid-19 is unprecedented,” Dix said. “We are now witnessing a global experiment where one emission source is rapidly turned down (NOx), while other sources are still up or will decrease more slowly. A lot of atmospheric science will come out of this.”

...and for those of us in the northeastern United States:

The populous area stretching from Boston to Washington, DC, is the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak and also a hub of economic and political activity. It’s also an area where states and cities have moved quickly to shut down non-essential services to slow the virus’ spread.

Though New Yorkers aren’t as car-dependent as their Los Angeles counterparts, there are still plenty of vehicles normally on NYC roads and dense clusters of buildings emitting pollution. Ditto for Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, which normally form a daisy chain of pollution along Interstate 95. With covid-19 lockdowns, the chain has been broken.

Just check out the satellite comparison:

grabbed from Earther, click to embiggen

Positively shocking, awesome, and inspirational - all at the same time! And that satellite imagery only represents a span of about 60 days.

Check out the rest at Earther, where you can do the same comparison for anywhere on the planet. China is especially interesting...

Note:

Please don't misunderstand; I am not trying to make light of the situation here. I completely recognize that there are people - lots of people - that are sick. Some of whom are dying due to illness. Many people are out-of-work due to coronavirus. My heart certainly aches for anyone whose health and/or well-being has been impacted by this pandemic.

Rather, like many people, I am making an effort to find positive things that will come to be as a result of this highly negative situation. The healing of the earth is one H U G E positive in this.

What a great isolated-version of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" by the Police. This is the content that we need right now!

The tuba tho!

Bad. Ass.

Honestly, I would probably watch anything that Chris Hemsworth does. Aside: if you haven't seen it, Hemsworth had a hilarious cameo in Kevin Smith's latest, Jay & Silent Bob Reboot (you can stream it on Amazon's Prime Video, if you're a subscriber).

Additionally, I have been increasingly pleased with the original content that Netflix is producing (Altered Carbon, Stranger Things, The Witcher, 6 Underground, etc.) and I am typically happy to give the streaming service's self-produced programming a shot.

Plus, this gives me something else to watch while we're all stuck at home.

This is my wife and beloved Melissa:


She's pretty great. And she straight-up rocks that Minnie Mouse jacket.

Today, she turns [redacted] years old. This is something of an 'ode to a happy birthday' for her.

Melissa is the yin to my yang, and nowhere is there more evidence of that than in our living under one roof. I am the laid-back type that operates under the 'take it as it comes' philosophy. But, even before the current state of things related to COVID-19, Melissa has always been the extremely cautious type. The way things are now, she's the one that wants to wipe-down anything that will be entering our house.

No joke. She has been using alcohol wipes to cleanse groceries before we put them away.

But that's okay, because she just wants to protect the ones that she loves. And she's got a lot of love to give.

It's for that reason (and so many, many more!) there is nobody on the planet that I'd rather be cooped-up with in our current coronavirus-inspired isolation. Every day brings a sunshine-filled start, a lunchtime walk with Molly Weasley, and a happy-hour that is like no other.

Happy birthday to my loving, quirky, caring, parent extraordinaire, student-centered, Disnified, and loving partner! (...and yes. "Loving" appeared twice in that list because she's got so much love to give.) When this 'keep-your-ass-away-from-everyone-who-doesn't-live-in-your-house' time ends, I vow to take you out to a lovely dinner and celebrate the annual reminder of just how awesome you are.

But for tonight, you'll have to settle for home-made lasagna and a cake that your daughter baked and decorated.

#GoTeamDolphin

Seriously guys. It's things like this that help me to believe that people are good. What a great way to start your day.

Oh, and as a music nerd, I can't begin to understand how the cast stayed together via a video conference call. So good.

Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Bill Withers passed away yesterday at the age of 81. A great write-up at the New York Times captures the essence pretty well:

William Harrison Withers Jr. was born on July 4, 1938, in Slab Fork, W.Va., to William and Mattie (Galloway) Withers. His mother was a maid, and his father worked in the coal mines.

At 17, eager to avoid a coal-mine career himself, Mr. Withers joined the Navy.

“My first goal was, I didn’t want to be a cook or a steward,” he told Rolling Stone. “So I went to aircraft-mechanic school.”

He spent nine years in the service, some of it stationed in Guam. He quit the Navy in 1965, while stationed in California, and eventually got a job at an airplane parts factory. A visit to a nightclub to see Lou Rawls perform was a catalyst for changing his life.

“I was making $3 an hour, looking for friendly women, but nobody found me interesting,” he said. “Then Rawls walked in, and all these women are talking to him.”

He bought a cheap guitar at a pawnshop, started learning to play it and writing songs, and eventually recorded a demo. Clarence Avant, a music executive who had just founded an independent label, Sussex, took note and set him up with the keyboardist Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG’s, to produce an album.

“Bill came right from the factory and showed up in his old brogans and his old clunk of a car with a notebook full of songs,” Mr. Jones told Rolling Stone. “When he saw everyone in the studio, he asked to speak to me privately and said, ‘Booker, who is going to sing these songs?’ I said, ‘You are, Bill.’ He was expecting some other vocalist to show up.”

Mr. Withers was laid off from his factory job a few months before “Just as I Am” came out. After the album’s release, he recalled, he received two letters on the same day. One was from his workplace asking him to return to work. The other was from “The Tonight Show,” where he appeared in November 1971.

The quintessential discovery story - love it.

While Withers has several recognizable songs ("Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean On Me", "Just The Two Of Us", "Lovely Day" and others), for me it doesn't get any better than "Use Me":



Studio version is here. Whether a live performance or in the studio, dude simply oozed soul. This is one of my personal top five favorite songs of all-time. And that's saying something.

It's too bad that Withers became frustrated with the music industry because I'm sure that he had more music to share with us.

Gross groove. Some good music for your earhole on a Friday morning.

Late yesterday big news broke about the University of California system, and how they will respond to the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis:

The University of California announced Wednesday that it will greatly ease some admission requirements for fall 2020 and beyond by eliminating SAT test scores and minimum grades, saying that “grave disruption” to schools during the coronavirus crisis calls for maximum flexibility in evaluating students.

The move, authorized by UC Board of Regents leaders, will relax the admissions process for more than 200,000 prospective freshmen and transfer students who annually apply to the UC system’s nine undergraduate campuses but are now studying under dramatically different — and, for many, highly stressful — circumstances.

Those students may not meet UC admission requirements this year because their high schools or community colleges have shifted to online instruction with varying degrees of success, pass/fail grading systems or reduced course offerings.

In addition, standardized test scores may be difficult to obtain because testing dates are being canceled or postponed for many required tests, including the SAT and ACT, high school exit exams and, for international students, evaluations of English-language proficiency.

More:

The Academic Senate agreed to temporarily suspend several admission regulations at the request of Han Mi Yoon-Wu, director of undergraduate admissions at the UC Office of the President. “With such grave disruption in the education system, administrators are seeking flexibility where possible under these untenable conditions,” Yoon-Wu wrote in a March 20 letter to Comeaux.

The modifications to admission requirements include:

• Suspending the letter grade requirement for the 15 prescribed college-preparatory courses completed in winter/spring/summer 2020 for all students, including UC’s most recently admitted freshmen
• Suspending the standardized test requirement for students applying for fall 2021 freshman admission.
• No rescission of student admissions offers that result from students or schools missing official final transcript deadlines. Also, admission will be honored through the first day of class until official documents are received by campuses.
• For transfer students, temporarily suspending the cap on the number of transferable units with Pass/No Pass grading applied toward the minimum 60 semester/90 quarter units required for junior standing.

Yoon-Wu noted that efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic had caused an “unprecedented and growing number of school closures” that have forced institutions to confront myriad challenges as they have switched abruptly to remote instruction.

The uncertainty is global, she said, noting that students studying overseas might be unable to earn the credentials typically required for UC admission, as prescribed testing has been or is likely to be disrupted in such countries as the United Kingdom, Pakistan, France, Germany and Italy.

“This period of uncertainty predicated by the COVID-19 situation greatly impacts our previously assured pipeline of students to UC, which includes California resident freshmen, California Community college transfers, domestic and international nonresidents,” she wrote. “The academic verification process ... and enrollments will be notably compromised.”

All very good reasons.

Many folks were watching to see how large publics like the UC system would respond to the coronavirus situation for their future enrollment pipelines. Now that a very large domino has fallen, it will be interesting to see how many other institutions will follow that lead.

More:

Depending on how things go -- what the arc of COVID-19 is nationally or in certain regions of the country, whether physical distancing rules are still in place, etc. -- college campuses may remain off-limits to students come September. Whether that's a 5 percent likelihood, or 25 percent or 50 percent, I have no idea (I'm no Tony Fauci, and even he can't say for sure). But it's almost certainly not zero.

In such a scenario, the impact on college campuses would be enormous -- operationally, financially and otherwise.

[...]

Any decisions about the fall are multiple weeks, if not months, away, and many people aren't ready to discuss the topic, at least publicly. But some foresighted campus officials are (often quietly) exploring that possibility, and I'd like to share some early assertions (or at least hypotheses) based on those discussions.

So, I just discovered Run The Jewels.

I know, I know. If you're like my kids you're likely thinking, "well, you're a mid-40s guy who just doesn't know what is 'hip' anymore." To that I respond:

1. Shut up, and;
2. You're kind of right

The reason that I know that you're kind of right is because I used to have a proverbial finger on the pulse of music. But Run The Jewels (RTJ, as it were) has been around for quite some time now and I was just made aware on Friday of last week.

Damn. I must be slipping.

For work we use the Microsoft Office suite of products, of which Teams is a part. Ever since we have ventured into this 'remote work' space, we use the Teams app even more to stay in touch with each other. Most of it is work-related communication, but sometimes things venture into the personal or "hey have you seen this show/movie/heard this music?"

Last week I created a Teams channel that I dubbed "Entertainment Swap"; a place where folks could go during their lunch hour (or anytime that they were just taking a break) to post up ideas or suggestions. During the course of the first real dialogue in this newly created channel, a colleague mentioned a hip-hop group by the name of Run The Jewels. He explained that it included Killer Mike - with whom I was already familiar due to his appearances on early Outkast songs.

This led me down a proverbial rabbit hole of YouTube videos and Apple Music downloads, and before I knew it, I was bobbing my head and experiencing some serious regret of having just found out about the duo. I mean, check out the video for "Legend Has It" above. Or this NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Or this DJ Shadow tune that features RTJ (and that is a super creative video).

Needless to say, I'm glad that my co-worker brought RTJ to my attention. They're pretty great. Chalk up another win for working remotely!

How cool is John Krasinski? The full video is worth your time for some good feels. And, I think that we all need some of that right now.

Epcot, looking at Future World from the World Showcase, on our last trip

Given all of the shut-downs due to Novel Coronavirus, it's certainly no surprise that all of the Disney-related theme parks (as well as non-Disney attractions as well) have completely closed. I was reading the other day about the financial impact that it has on the Disney company specifically (estimates are between $20 million and $30 million lost every day that the parks are closed). /Film has an interesting post up about the impact:

Understandably, among the things taking a pause are construction projects. Walt Disney World, ever-expanding in its 43 square miles of space, has plenty of projects in the pipeline, but they’re taking a break for now. What kind of projects are affected? Well, everything from the TRON Lightcycle attraction to the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel was in some form of construction. Those projects’ original arrival dates are now pushed back to who knows when.

[snip]

Of course, who knows when the parks will be open again. California is essentially shut down for the next four weeks, and Governor Gavin Newsom has said he can imagine that shut down being doubled. In fraught times such as these, it’s especially frustrating that we can’t have escapism such as the theme parks to forget our troubles. For now, do what I’m doing: watch YouTube videos of theme-park rides, shows, and more. Listen to Disney theme-park background music. And most importantly: whoever you are, wherever you are, stay safe and healthy.

My emphasis.

On our last trip the Wife and I spent a great deal of time at Galaxy's Edge in Disney's Hollywood Studios (more about that trip here). While we greatly enjoyed the experience (and were fortunate to fit it in just before the whole planet shut down), I'm not sure that I'm ready to splurge for the Galactic Starcruiser hotel. I am disappointed that the TRON Lightcycle will be pushed back. I also imagine that the Guardians of the Galaxy feature at Epcot will also be delayed.

But back to that emphasized text in the quote. Being the Disney parks dork that I am (and that my wife is as well, for the record), I have already bookmarked several YouTube playlists to give me a Disney fix when I need it.

If you want the soundtrack that is the in-room information channel you can check out this link, or subscribe to ResortTV1 on YouTube. They post lots of a great park-related content.

Grand Avenue has - in my humble opinion - the best soundtrack in ALL of the parks. This is what I refer to as the "backlot" area at Disney's Hollywood Studios (from ABC Commissary toward Muppetvision 3D, just before you enter Galaxy's Edge). It has a funky/jazzy inspiration and includes The Meters, Lettuce, and the New Mastersounds, to name a few. You can check that out here, and also peep the Magical Soundtracks channel for other great soundtrack loops.

So, for those of us that need a quick fix of that good Disney stuff, there are a couple of resources for you regardless of how long the parks are closed.

Screenrant does a fantastic job documenting the what and why of the Force Dyad in the Star Wars universe:

The Force Dyad appears to be an entirely natural phenomenon. According to Charles Soule's tie-in comic The Rise of Kylo Ren, it first manifested when Ben Solo began to surrender to the dark side. He was locked in a duel with the leader of the Knights of Ren, and abandoned himself to the darkness for the first time; far away, on the desert planet of Jakku, a young desert rat named Rey suddenly felt cold. It's clear, then, that the Dyad was created by the express will of the Force itself, rather than from intervention by any third party.

The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary stresses the Dyad can be cultivated. That happened years later, when Kylo Ren captured Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and attempted to probe her mind. This fits perfectly with Jason Fry's novelization of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, in which he explained this was how Rey learned so much about the Force so fast.

[snip]

It's telling that, immediately after the Dyad had been cultivated, Rey was able to use a Jedi mind trick to escape her cell on Starkiller Base; shortly after, she was able to match Kylo Ren in a duel.

[snip]

The morality of Star Wars is usually quite simple, with a strong dichotomy between light and dark. The Jedi are seen as servants of the light side of the Force, while the Sith are of the dark. But it's increasingly becoming clear this is a perversion of the original Jedi teachings; Star Wars: The Last Jedi featured a mural showing the Prime Jedi, and it showed a teacher whose philosophy was very different. Light and dark were given equal prominence in the mural, with the Prime Jedi representing the darkness in the light, and the light in the darkness. This was supported by Cavan Scott's audiobook Dooku: Jedi Lost, which revealed the ancient Jedi treated balance as a separate aspect of the Force, like light and dark.

Rey and Ben Solo both know the light and dark sides of the Force. However hard Rey attempts to commit to the light, there is still anger and pain bubbling up within her - explosively so, when she unleashed Force Lightning in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Ben Solo, meanwhile, has never been able to quiet the siren song of the light side of the Force. Palpatine intended Han Solo's murder to push Kylo to the dark side beyond the point of no return, but Han sabotaged it by his willingness to die for his son, unwittingly ensuring Ben never truly committed to the dark side. Like the Prime Jedi, both Rey and Ben are the light in the darkness, and the darkness in the light. The more they grew in the Force, the stronger their Dyad bond became.

Keep reading the article for more details.

Here's what is great about these new details: the movie(s) never fully developed this idea. Throughout the final trilogy (that focused on Rey), fans were left mouth agape when Rey would flex Jedi skills. When Rey was a captive on Starkiller Base and was able to mind trick a First Order Stormtrooper (ably played by none other than James Bond himself, Daniel Craig), I was left thinking that it took Luke Skywalker several years to hone that skill.

With these additional details, we now can more clearly understand why Rey was so suddenly able to use the Force with the skill of a full-fledged Jedi (or Sith). It would have been nice to have some of this explained in "The Force Awakens" - but at least we're getting it now.

Of late - with the LARGE exception of COVID-19 related information - the buzz in my Twitter timeline is almost wholly that from the pro-test-optional community. I count myself as one who supports that initiative.

Students applying to any Indiana University campus may soon have the option of whether to include their scores from standardized tests like the SAT or ACT with their application materials.

During its December meeting, the IU Board of Trustees approved a change in policy allowing each IU campus the option to adopt a test-optional admissions policy. Faculty leadership from each campus will now have its chance to set its own policy.

Academic success at the college level depends on a range of factors, with the greatest importance placed on academic preparation. Research shows that, for many students, high school GPA provides the best prediction of academic success in college.

Okay, so the headline says that IU is "one step closer" to test-optional, and "faculty leadership from each campus to set its own policy". But, if you look at IU Bloomington's admissions website (arguably the "flagship" campus), you get a BUNCH of info and FAQs about the test-optional policy:

Screenshot from admissions.iu.edu

And it's all effective for students applying for admission in 2021.

Conversely, it was recently revealed that the University of California system - despite mounting pressure to abolish the use of the ACT - would keep standardized exams as part of their admission requirements:

The Academic Senate of the University of California assembled a task force in 2018 to evaluate the system’s current use of standardized tests. On Monday that task force delivered a much-anticipated report listing several recommendations. Not among the recommendations? Tossing the tests.

While the authors considered what it might look like for the large public university system to go test optional and not require SAT or ACT scores in the admissions process, they ultimately declined to endorse that option.

For EM nerds, you can view/download the full STTF report here. It's a lot.

For me, the most interesting part of the story was to keep tests in play despite earlier signs that the UC system would decide to abolish the requirement. Eric Hoover at The Chronicle of Higher Education breaks it down nicely.

On Monday a panel appointed by the University of California’s Academic Senate delivered a long-awaited report examining the system’s standardized-testing requirements. The bottom-line recommendation: The university, at least for the near future, should continue requiring the ACT or SAT for admission.

Critics of college-entrance exams had hoped that the report would recommend that the system stop requiring them, especially after some of the university’s most prominent leaders publicly questioned their value last year. Instead, the panel pumped the brakes, recommending that the university conduct further research on the possible effects of dropping the requirement.

My emphasis. There were many that thought the system would stop using tests as an admission requirement to the University of California generally.

But, for my mind, the most striking part of the report is the assertion that high school grade point average is not as accurate a predictor of first-year collegiate GPA as standardized test scores are:

How well do UC’s current standardized testing practices assess entering high school students for UC readiness? How well do UC current standardized testing practices predict student success in the context of its comprehensive review process?

The STTF [Standardized Testing Task Force] found that standardized test scores aid in predicting important aspects of student success, including undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), retention, and completion. At UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, UGPA, and graduation. For students within any given (HSGPA) band, higher standardized test scores correlate with a higher freshman UGPA, a higher graduation UGPA, and higher likelihood of graduating within either four years (for transfers) or seven years (for freshmen). Further, the amount of variance in student outcomes explained by test scores has increased since 2007, while variance explained by high school grades has decreased, although altogether does not exceed 26%. Test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines, even after controlling for HSGPA. In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority students (URMs), who are first-generation, or whose families are low-income: that is, test scores explain more of the variance in UGPA and completion rates for students in these groups. One consequence of dropping test scores would be increased reliance on HSGPA in admissions. The STTF found that California high schools vary greatly in grading standards, and that grade inflation is part of why the predictive power of HSGPA has decreased since the last UC study.

Again, my emphasis.

The reason that I find this information striking is because it flies in the face of years of research that contradicts the assertion; how a student performs over four years in high school is the strongest predictor of how that student will perform at a post-secondary institution.

Indeed there is a large body of evidence that shows a positive correlation between high school GPA and SAT scores. When used in conjunction with high school performance, standardized exam scores (such as the ACT or SAT) enhance the prognostic value to the method being used to predict academic success in college.

But many studies show that GPA alone is the best individual predictor of academic success (particularly in English and math coursework) of traditional-aged first-time college students. Here's a great example from 2017:

High school grade point average was consistently predictive of college performance among recent high school graduates regardless of whether they were from rural or urban parts of Alaska. Although the students attended different high schools, their high school grade point average was similarly predictive. High school grades may be more predictive than standardized exam scores and consistently predictive regardless of high school urbanicity because they are a measure of cumulative performance over time and thus quantify other skills or competencies—beyond reading and math proficiency—that are necessary to succeed in college.

The full study is here.

Given the academic evidence that mounts in favor of high school GPA/performance, I struggle to see how the UC system can assert that test scores out-perform secondary school performance in predicting collegiate success. That argument simply defies logic (and most academic literature on the topic that I have seen).

Throw in all of the recent activity related to the Novel Coronavirus, and you've got quite a slew of institutions adding to the growing list of colleges and universities that are going test-optional:

“These scores have always made up just a portion of our evaluation of prospective students, and we don't want our future applicants to feel hamstrung by circumstances far outside their control,” said Peter Shulman, associate professor of history and chair of Faculty Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education.

The change will be effective with those who apply to Case Western in the fall of 2021.

Also going test optional and citing the test cancellations were Concordia University Texas, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and Westminster College, also of Pennsylvania.

Other colleges are shifting to test optional but not citing the current health crisis. Announcements in recent weeks include Chapman University, Hamline University, St. Bonaventure University and the University of Redlands.

...and we still have about six weeks to go until the end of the spring semester.

For me, no additional evidence is required to understand that how a given student performs over a four-year period in high school (i.e. a longer-term period) is going to be a very strong predictor of how they will perform over a four-year (or, if they are like me in college, a FIVE-year period) in higher education. The challenge for a large, research institution like Penn State is to develop a way to assess an applicant using a multitude of factors in lieu of standardized exam scores. The aforementioned IU model certainly has my interest piqued, and I will be continuing to watch very closely as things continue to unfold.

Before zombie apocalypse movies and tv shows were all the rage, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost created what I think is the best zombie movie ever: Shaun of the Dead.

If you are unfamiliar, here's a taste of the film (and the undercurrent of humor throughout):



Because of the Coronavirus outbreak, they have taken to the Internet to update that scene, and add a bit of their sense of humor:



In the end, I too just want to have a pint and wait for this to all blow over. You?

Head nod: /Film

There has been a lot of activity in my timeline about colleges changing their business practices due to the coronavirus. Yesterday I listened to a highly relevant piece at NPR (shout-out to Elissa Nadworny) about how COVID-19 is impacting students looking to attend college. Listen here. Some good print-takeaway:

[High school senior Xander] Christou spent most of last fall like many high school seniors: researching and applying to schools. He planned to spend the spring visiting some of the campuses he was accepted to. "Online, the colleges are just names and logos and programs," he says, "nothing will compare to actually being on campus and speaking face-to-face with current students."

But with so many colleges shutting down, all of those visits have been cancelled — including one "candidate weekend" on NYU's Abu Dhabi campus that was all-expense paid. "I was very excited for that," he says, "all I had to do was pack and go to the airport." He would have gotten back home last week. The return flight, without him on it, got cancelled too.

Of course it's more than just the visits — he's waiting on his financial aid offers, too. Money, and how his family is going to pay for college, has become even more important.

Indeed. And that's why we are seeing more and more institutions pushing the May 1st acceptance date to June 1st (or later).

Like the rest of the nation world, this COVID thing is impacting everything, and college admissions is no exception. However, how colleges and universities react to the challenges that are presented are very different. The next few weeks are going to see a lot of changes in the way that institutions of higher education recruit and enroll their classes...

But instead of focusing on our business processes, we should be taking direction from the needs of the students that we are recruiting. We shouldn't be concerned with "what we have always done" or "what will enhance our yield". Rather, we should be bending over backwards to help students - even if said students decide to not attend our institution.

This is a time in history when humans should all be helping each other, and the college search process should be no different.

Is this an uneasy time? Yes. Does each day bring about even more uncertainty? Absolutely. But, as I've been saying to our team, "We need to start to be comfortable with the discomfort that these times are bringing." If we can do that, we can help students get through the process of figuring out what to do after high school graduation.

A little over two years ago my family "cut the cord" from satellite television and went full-tilt into streaming services. I've talked previously about my love/obsession with Disney Plus and we also have a subscription to Prime Video (my most recent win there is The Boys). Additionally, we share a subscription to Hulu and Netflix. One other service that I recommend is Vudu - as they have a large catalog of streaming options (though you have to occasionally sit through a commercial or two).

What a cool concept!

From Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) comes Upload, a new sci-fi comedy. In the near future, people who are near death can be “uploaded” into virtual reality environments. Cash-strapped Nora works customer service for the luxurious “Lakeview” digital afterlife. When party-boy/coder Nathan’s car crashes, his girlfriend uploads him into Nora’s VR world.

The ten episode run will start streaming on Prime Video on May 1st.

Head nod: /Film

Amid all of the COVID-19 news, I missed this not-so-small headline: Admissions Counselors Move to Change Code of Ethics From Mandatory to Best Practices:

The National Association for College Admission Counseling’s Board of Directors approved at its March meeting last week a motion to change its Code of Ethics and Professional Practices from a mandatory code to a statement of best practices.

NACAC moved to make the change after a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust investigation, said its president, Jayne Caflin Fonash, in a note posted online Thursday and sent to members. The change still must be approved by NACAC's member delegates at its national conference in September before it takes effect.

My emphasis.

While not surprising, it is still striking to me that the change was approved. It almost feels like this move is the final proverbial nail in the coffin of ethics in college admissions, since the CEPP is no longer mandatory.

I just read that again after I wrote it and now I'm depressed.

😔

The Admissions Dude Mobile Command Center

Today was my first day working remotely as a result of COVID-19, and it wasn't a disaster Granted, there are still a few minutes left in my workday, but I'm feeling confident that I won't crash and burn today. (but there's always tomorrow!)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Based on evolving federal guidance and statewide mitigation plans announced by Gov. Tom Wolf around the growing coronavirus pandemic and the global efforts underway to stop its spread, Penn State has extended the remote-delivery period for all classes through at least the spring semester. Examinations will also be administered remotely. Additionally, spring commencement ceremonies will be postponed while the University explores options for celebrating the achievements of our students. These decisions align with recommendations from the federal government that call for restricting of all gatherings of more than 10 people.

“Graduation is a significant milestone for our students and while it may not be the same as our traditional ceremony, we are committed to finding the best way possible to recognize the achievements of our graduates,” said Penn State President Eric J. Barron. “However, as the world works together to slow the spread of COVID-19, these decisions must be made with public health at the forefront along with the health and wellness of our students, faculty, staff, their families, and our local communities.”

The University will announce soon a schedule for students to return to campus to move out of their on-campus residence halls. It is essential that students know they will not be able to swipe into their on-campus residences until they receive specific information and detailed instructions regarding the schedule. This is critical to the University’s efforts to create as much social distancing as possible and maintain a low level of exposure risk to our students as well as all of our local communities.

“The University will also work with local authorities, landlords, and student leaders, where we can, to develop strategies to minimize the impact of students returning to our communities to retrieve personal belongings,” said Barron. “We encourage all students to be patient as they await further guidance and support.”

Boom. And like that, everything changes in a more long-term way.

While we haven't yet received any direction regarding staff reporting to campus for work - and when that would happen - the statement is more information about how the University will be operating in the near-term. I try to take solace in that. But, for the record, I'm not someone that likes to have a lot of uncertainty in his life. This is amplified even further in my work life.

A college friend of mine works in the service industry. His company has a tasting room in which he spends a bit of his time. Earlier this week, based on everything COVID-related, the company decided to limit the number of people in the tasting room to only two at a time. In my friend's words, "that's good for f**king business".

Indeed.

Needless to say, he's worried about both the immediate and lasting economic effects of the current crisis. More to the point: he's worried about his job. And I am too.

I have come to realize that working in higher education has some serious privileges, not the least of which is the ability to work from my house (and be able to accomplish nearly everything that I am able to do in the office). I wish that everyone had that same ability.

I guess that I should try to focus my attention on the positives right now. My co-workers don't know that I'm wearing pajama pants to meetings. I have a couple of four-legged friends at my ankles while I'm in "the office". I've got this supremely interesting, smart, and attractive woman with whom I'm sharing my workspace (aka, my wife). And - perhaps most of all - I am still employed.

I hope that the events of COVID-19 blow over without major incident, and that you and your family are weathering the proverbial storm in good health.

So, in case you hadn't heard, there has been a lot of activity related to COVID-19 (aka, the Coronavirus) in the past few days. Here at Penn State, like everywhere else, things have gotten hectic with trying to plan for working remotely (at best) or a complete shut-down of the University (at worst).

What a great peek at the possibilities that abound in No Time To Die, the 25th installment in the James Bond franchise.

Head-nod: /Film

Here we are, neck-deep into the Season of Yield in the recruitment and admissions game, and many colleges and universities are showing their hand with regard to offering incentives for students to commit:

Albion College is giving away prizes, including free room and board for a semester, to encourage accepted applicants to commit within the next few weeks. To enter what the college has called the “Early Deposit Sweepstakes,” a student must commit by March 6 — nearly two months before the national deposit deadline.

Now, some colleges are experimenting with bolder marketing strategies, disrupting the admissions timeline, and toppling long-held norms. Rejoice, or mourn, accordingly.

Albion, a private liberal-arts college in Michigan, started promoting its early-deposit incentive at the beginning of February, sending emails and postcards to all accepted applicants. As of late last week, the college’s homepage featured a colorful banner advertising the coming drawing. “Our Early deposit sweepstakes ends soon,” the message said, “so make sure you are in the running.”

Now, that banner ad is gone. That’s because, Bucheli said, “we’re calling it an awards program, not a sweepstakes — it’s more indicative of what we’re trying to accomplish.” To give students considering the college some “value added” encouragement to go ahead and choose it.

According to a description of the “Early Deposit Awards Program” on Albion’s website, each student who meets the March 6 deadline will be entered into a drawing for one of 12 “awards.” One lucky student will win free room and board for a semester, and another will have the cost of a meal plan ($3,150) paid for a semester. Five contestants will each get $250 for textbooks, and five will have their vehicle-registration fees covered for one year.

But wait, there’s another incentive to commit sooner rather than later. The charge for students who pay an “early enrollment deposit” on or before April 1 is $250. After that, the fee increases to $350.

Look. I know that there are some legitimate reasons behind the Department of Justice's decision to go after NACAC (and by proxy, the institutions of higher education that are members of the association). There is certainly a strong argument that the changes to the CEPP will benefit students considering enrolling in higher education programs.

But this stuff makes my skin crawl.

Ever since NACAC voted last year to make changes to the Code of Ethics and Principles of Practice (aka, the "CEPP"), I have struggled with my own ethics on the matter.

For the record, I am - and always have been - of the mind that students need to make the choice that best fits them. Whether that is attending large, public institution; a small, private institution; a community college; a trade school; enlisting in the military; or starting into the workforce, students should understand what options are available to them. After researching said options, students should make an informed decision about post-high school plans. As I said in my last post about it:

Based on the data available to them (e.g. cost of the institution, the financial aid package that the institution offered the student, academic fit, social fit, etc.), the student was expected to make an informed decision about their plans for their own higher education.

But now, pretty much anything is fair game. And, while this might benefit students for finding a "good deal" on tuition deposits or housing, it can potentially create an environment akin to the stereotype of a used car sales lot.

EAB, an education consulting firm, is offering some first predictions at how widespread those practices may be. Its research suggests a substantial minority of enrollment officers are considering poaching students from other institutions.

Thirty-five percent of enrollment officers surveyed by EAB said they were considering offering transfer incentives to first-year students they had previously admitted but who are attending other colleges. Just under one-quarter surveyed said they were considering recruiting incoming freshmen who have committed to another college but have yet to enroll.

One hundred and fifty-nine enrollment officers responded to EAB’s online survey, which was conducted in mid-October, only a few weeks after NACAC officially changed its guidelines. Participants were given a long list of practices and asked to select those they were considering employing, said Pam Royall, head of research for EAB’s enrollment services.

The company is tentatively planning to follow up with another survey in April, Royall said.

Results did vary by the size of the institution. Respondents from very small institutions were the most likely, at 54 percent, to say they were considering recruiting rising freshmen who have committed elsewhere. Respondents from large institutions were the least likely to consider those practices.

And that's from the perspective of institutions - what about students?

Joyce Smith, CEO of NACAC, said that she and others are very concerned about what might be in store for college admissions this summer and fall. Uncertainty around whether students will show up come September, she said, means uncertainty around financial aid budgets and housing at colleges.

“When any and all of this is on shaky ground, it’s not just the admissions office that is concerned,” she said.

Students and families may also now go through the admissions process more aggressively, she said.

“I’m getting reports from counselors that families and students are playing the game, too,” she said, “that they are applying early decision but not withdrawing applications from other schools, because they want to get better financial aid or better housing or better schedules.”

“It stands to be chaotic.”

Indeed. I think that chaotic might be an understatement.

Back in the heady days of the year 2000 when I started my first job working in the admissions office at Juniata College (pronounced: "Joo-Nee-AH-Tah", not "Wah-NEE-Tah"), I attended the New York Association for College Admission Counseling Summer Institute. At this three-day workshop, I learned all about the professional association, but also the ethics behind the college admissions profession. Topics ranged from things as heavy as "removing bias in the application review process", to lighter fare like "what items should (and should NOT) be on an institution's table at a college fair".

You see, for the latter of those two topics, under the former NACAC rules you couldn't have anything but basic marketing materials on your table. No candy or food. Oh, and you were required to stand behind your table, not in front of it or in the aisle.

These things may sound a bit picayune to the layperson, but the idea was that you shouldn't use or do anything that would give your institution an advantage over others in attendance.

But with the new rules, all of that ethics stuff is tossed out of the proverbial window. The worst-case-scenario is a college fair where colleges and universities with exorbitant recruitment budgets will entice students to fill out an inquiry card to be entered to win a car (or a full tuition "scholarship"). No longer will these professional development activities include cautionary tales of maintaining strong ethics. Rather, they could include workshops on "the best strategies to woo students away from other schools". Yikes.

My fear is that the recruitment and admissions "game" will turn into the higher ed-version of Survivor, where only the most aggressive of institutions will be able to compete.

Will schools implement high-pressure tactics to sway students? Only time will tell.

Something about which I have oft-wondered. Why did the George Lazenby, the second actor to play James Bond, only appear in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, then never appear in another Bond movie?

It's tempting to assume that the negative reaction and general feeling that Lazenby was inferior to Connery directly led to his short career as MI6's finest, but this wasn't the case. Despite the poor appraisals of Lazenby's performance, the Bond team actually wanted their new man to stay on, but he declined the offer and opened the door for Connery to briefly return, before Roger Moore was eventually chosen as a more permanent replacement. It's curious that an inexperienced actor would turn down the chance to continue in the major role of James Bond, especially since Lazenby's decision to leave was not made due to the bad press, but because of bad advice.

In the 2017 documentary Becoming Bond, Lazenby describes both his entry into the world of 007 and his reasons for departing. Lazenby claims he was offered a contract for 6 more James Bond adventures, but had been advised by his agent, Ronan O'Rahilly, to turn the deal down. O'Rahilly convinced Lazenby that the James Bond franchise didn't harmonize with the increasingly widespread hippy culture of the late 1960s and 1970s, and action heroes such as Bond would soon be seen as outdated relics. Lazenby also felt that he could break into the spaghetti western genre in a Clint Eastwood-esque fashion, but was blacklisted from the industry after turning down the Bond contract. His reputation was tarnished further by reports of being difficult on-set, and movie roles proved far harder to come by than Lazenby and his management had anticipated.

[snip]

For the audience's part, modern opinion now sees Lazenby's sole James Bond performance as a far better turn that many gave him credit for at the time, while Sean Connery's return in Diamonds Are Forever is conversely considered to have been a film too far for the original 007. Despite this drastic change of public sentiment, Lazenby's film career vanished as quickly as it began, with Bond both making and breaking the aspiring actor. Regardless, the Australian holds a special place in James Bond history, and it's fascinating to think where the franchise would be today if George Lazenby had made those further 6 films.

For my mind, I have always enjoyed On Her Majesty's Secret Service as a classic James Bond movie. I never felt that Lazenby was a bad turn at the character. In fact, I thought that he brought a bit more serious tone to the role. This is more pronounced when contrasted to Sean Connery's chauvinistic portrayal of the famous British spy.

Still, interesting stuff about the inner-working and decision-making process behind the scenes!