A proposal by UC San Diego professors has been made to close UC Merced in order to help close the budget gap. This is on top of the 23% some odd percent tuition fee increase which is itself on top of the regular annual 10% fee increase.

I've tracked the cost of things before and this is something else. The rate of increase is starting to resemble percentages only associated with the usury lending practices of predatory credit card companies. I think it is fair to say that college students will be paying more than their fair share of increased taxes next year.

And now CA is considering closing a university. If the CA legislature proposed selling off park land for development, or selling huge tracks of lumber or other natural resources there would be an outcry (off-shore oil drilling anybody?) but if we are selling off the hopes and dreams of our younger citizens, that... is ok?

Pandora is moving proprietary. Some of my friends wanted the details, so here is the message copied and pasted below the ( cut )

Tomorrow most of the law firm where I work is taking a field trip to tour a candy factory owned by one of the partners. All of the interns (e.g. me) are invited and so is everybody else at the firm who hasn't had the opportunity yet to visit their candy factory.

This job comes with sweet perks! (but I just might bring a toothbrush..)

So for work, I am using three web browsers simultaneously in order to do my work.

I use Internet Explorer for browsing the firm's database of discovery production documents on the case. (required by database software)
I use Mozilla for internet if I have to look something up, but primarily to update the case outline on the private wiki we have.
I use Chrome for Pandora radio while I work. I suspect the primary reason I like doing this is it looks different on my task bar so I can ignore it while swapping between windows of the other two.

I can't decide whether this is an effective use of technology, or just technological chicanery.

A hilarious short video on the "success" of libertarianism, in Somalia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QDv4sYwjO0

A must watch. :)

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger

I have just received news that your proposed solution to balance the state budget includes a proposal to eliminate the Cal Grant program. Now I have heard many bad ideas but this one is outright shocking. I cannot believe you could seriously consider such an option at a time like this.

Perhaps you are unaware of some facts.
(1) First, California's higher education system has been put under tremendous strain over the last decade.
(2) Investments into higher education have proven to be the single best investment the State can make, and an investment that is unitarily critical to the State's future economic prosperity.
(3) "Tidal Wave II" threatens higher education with unprecedented challenges.

========
(1) California's higher education system has been under tremendous strain over the last decade. I graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a bachelors degree within 4 years in 2007. It is much more uncommon to have college students graduating within 4 years these days. A major contributing factor to the protracted time to graduation is the increasing number of students who are working longer hours while in college in order to pay their own way through college. As fees have continued to go up nearly 10% every year the number of hours students spend working, and not studying, increases significantly. My first quarter at Cal Poly in the summer of 2003 I paid $748 dollars in tuition. My last quarter at Cal Poly I paid $1,450 in tuition. I graduated early when compared to the average college student and my tuition still rose 94%, nearly doubling during my tenure.
This has already happened and you might realize how that is utterly ridiculous.
If the costs of production in any company were to double in four short years you would expect the company to be on the verge of collapse. Higher education has strained under this significant increased burden being placed on it. It is the tenacity, resilience, and bright minds of California students who have managed to shoulder this burden. However, eliminating Cal Grants is just too much for an already straining system. Working your way through college goes from being difficult to being impossible. The effects of eliminating Cal Grants may solve the short term budget problems this year, but the costs will certainly be devastating. California will lose many of the entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, doctors and artists. That would be a desecration of the American dream, and in future years will have a deleterious effect on the California treasury as well.
Even if you don't care about the students who will be devastated by this, at least consider the State's own fiscal health.

(2) Investments into higher education have proven to be the single best investment the State can make, and an investment that is unitarily critical to the State's future economic prosperity. Studies have shown that for every $1 of spending in higher education there is a budgetary return of between $5-8 dollars (depending on the study). Education is monetarily a sound reliable investment. Additionally, students are the State's future. Twenty years from now it is unquestionable that a majority of this states economic and political leaders will be graduates from this States higher education system.

(3) For many years now those researching higher education policy have noticed a significant challenge facing higher education which they have dubbed "tidal wave II." This refers to the tremendous increase in demand for higher education as the baby boomers children graduate from high school in unprecedented numbers. I have heard estimates predicting the peak will occur around 2010. At a time when higher education is facing the most significant challenges of this century the State should be matching the most unprecedented demand for higher education with correspondingly unprecedented support. That is what would be required in order to simply maintain existing levels of service. I am truly afraid to consider what will happen if the State instead makes an unprecedented failure to support higher education.


Please, do not forget the importance of having a strong higher education system and consider alternatives to eliminating Cal Grants or further cutting funding. The Oil Severance Tax for Higher Education (AB 656) is one of a great many alternative options to balance the budget.

I just found out that we won. The small firm I work represented the prevailing party for my very first real pleading.

~I say "my pleading" because I was predominantly responsible for the research and drafting of the relevant argument. It was supervised, reviewed, and argued by the firm's attorney (e.g. not unauthorized practice of law).

My record so far:
Undefeated (quick, take a picture while it lasts....)

Bones v. Lie to Me

( Bones vs Lie to Me )

Bones

( Because of the spoilers for Bones, commentary under the cut )

Dollhouse

Ever notice how Dollhouse is strikingly similar to the old British television series The Prisoner? You have the people imprisoned against their will, the heavy handed psychology, and the complicated cover-ups, plotting and conspiracies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/us/politics/29specter.html

Senator Specter switched sides in order to avoid losing a republican primary.
[Because he is a moderate].

( Commentary supporting preferential based voting systems under the cut )

This is a hilarious conversation I heard recently.

Child: Tomorrow is Easter so you owe me chocolate Easter eggs.
Parent: Do you even know why we celebrate Easter?
Child: Because its the day God died?

. . .
Apparently Easter is now Nietche's holiday; and we celebrate by eating chocolate and having scavenger hunts.