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!