How did I completely miss out on Battlestar Galactica?
by tdaxp ~ August 19th, 2010
tdaxp, Ph.D.
High-minded, fanatically malthusian perspectives
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- One Hundred Years of Revolution (6)
- > James formerly at Cross Strait Times: Thank you for the compliment! It’s also been taking me some time to think of a...
- Being Lovingly Kind by Letting the House Burn (18)
- > Larry Dunbar: “I’ve always wanted to see someone write a book on Jesus as an analytical genius” After my,...
- Educational Equality: The Civil Rights Struggle of Our Day (2)
- > tdaxp: Negative, unfortunately. The American Civil Rights Era was a lot of storm and thunder that took some political...
- > FredR: Any books you’d recommend about the Civil Rights era?
- Review of “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China” by Ezra F. Vogel (14)
- > tdaxp: Larry, This is an interesting discussion! Agreed that the Tea Party wanted less democracy. Vogel implies the...
- > Larry Dunbar: “Vogel criticizes the notion that the protestors were primarily interested in democracy as a form of...
- > tdaxp: Hey Larry, A number of good points. Let me quick address them: “As all war is about economic considerations,...
- > Larry Dunbar: “Party and government workers, state enterprise employees, and others with fixed salaries were furious...
- > Larry Dunbar: And of course they were all armed, by organizations such as the NRA that lobbied to keep the forces armed,...
- > Larry Dunbar: “Sun Yatsen was the first President of China and the founder of the KMT.” So, doctor, lawyer;...
- > tdaxp: What’s interesting is that what CKS said he was doing, CCK actually did. Sun Yatsen was the first President...
- > Larry Dunbar: I am thinking Reagan was like me, more of an engineer than a tactician. He understood structure, not...
- > Larry Dunbar: Reagan was a King, not a statesman. He was simply not a tyrant, which people of the USA don’t...
- > Larry Dunbar: A “Cheap Trick” doesn’t work if you’re brain-dead.
- > Larry Dunbar: “Moreover, by early 1981 China had already established working relationships with Y.K. Pao and other Hong...
- > Larry Dunbar: “Two years later, in 1987, Chiang Ching-kuo, on his deathbed, abolished the long-standing martial law...
- > Larry Dunbar: “Deng, who for more than a year had behaved like a stern, truculent soldier lecturing American officials,...
- > Larry Dunbar: “When he was informed of Deng’s proposal, however, Chiang Ching-kuo was defiant: he repeated his...
- How Science Works (31)
- > tdaxp: Richard, You have a good & reasonable concern re: privacy. Certainly there’s a balance to be bad between...
- > Richard: Biggest issue would be privacy. I could have got some bad reports on such a system because in some classes I was...
- > tdaxp: Very true, Michael. Teachers are facing a fork between being professionals [1] and being drones [2]. Both cases...
- > Michael: About half-way through that essay I mentioned in my last comment on the testing thread. Had this quote from an...
- The Low Quality of the US Education System Destroys Jobs (2)
- > tdaxp: The question of evolution v. revolution is an important one — as I understand the problem, there are three...
- > Bruno Behrend: Parents and Employers only think they are stakeholders, but they aren’t. The system is designed to...
- Where Did All the Jobs Go? (3)
- > tdaxp: Bruno, Excellent comment! Thanks for sharing! I agree that the cost of transforming teachers into professionals is...
- > Bruno Behrend: What if we don’t need anywhere near the amount of brick and mortar schools, administrators, or...
- Why Are Teachers So Rich? (7)
- > tdaxp: Hey Cosmic Tinker, Thanks so much for your comment. I agree that it seems unlikely many teachers are making...
- > Cosmic Tinker: The NYT article clearly states, “School teachers don’t earn enough to make the top 1 percent on...
- > tdaxp: Yeah, the legend is a bit confusing.
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:... - > Tyler: Okay, so I just read the figure caption more closely. It explains that teachers become the 1% primarily through...
- > Tyler: I think one of us may be misinterpreting this figure-chart-table. The way I understand it is that very few (0.9%;...
- > tdaxp: Hey Tyler, Thanks for the awesome comment. There’s far fewer retail sales clerks than teachers in the top 1%,...
- > Tyler: More than 99% of teachers are not rich. In fact, in terms of percentage in the 1%, retail sales clerks are better...
- What Good Tests Look Like, and Why We Don’t Have Them (8)
- > tdaxp: Michael, Interesting article! The benefit of the national exam system is that you can objective measure everyone in...
- > Michael: The anecdote at the beginning of this essay suggests a rough-and-read test for secondary and tertiary schools:...
- > Michael: I would imagine it depends on the skill of the teacher and the concern of the parents. Teachers who don’t...
- > tdaxp: Interest link, thanks! This actually does a good job of showing the difficulty of the discussion — the...
- > Michael: Not directly related to the subject, but with links to other articles on the site that are....
- How Professional Teachers Should Be Evaluated (8)
- > tdaxp: Kim, Thanks for sharing your essay with me! I look forward to reading it. Here’s the paragraph where tdaxp is...
- > Kim Krostue: OK, education primer: US public schools – the crisis that never ends available via my blog. may be...
- > tdaxp: Kim, Awesome! Glad for the press, of course. What will be the publication outlet for your paper. I can’t...
- > Kim Krostue: will attempt to read in the next few days. you are now a reference in my paper: US public schools: the crisis...
- > Kim Krostue: I will attempt to read over the next few days. You are now added as a reference in my 9000 word paper. thanks...
- > tdaxp: Hey Kim, Thanks for linking to the op-ed! I look forward to reading more of what you have to say! I think I broadly...
- > Kim Krostue: Have spent the last 6 months studying us public schools. here is letter to editor published last week....
- What is the best biography of Deng Xiaoping? (8)
- > tdaxp: Spehro, Great minds think a like! I am reading Vogel’s work now!
- > Spehro Pefhany: There is a definitive biography now (C) 2011:- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F....
- The Encirclement of a United Front (8)
- > tdaxp: Kim, thanks. I can’t wait to read your thoughts!
- > Kim Krostue: Many of the points you make show up in my paper.
- The Political Economy of Education Reform (6)
- > tdaxp: Kim, You’re absolutely correct that parents should be on the list. I think we’re on the same...
- > Kim Krostue: I would add to parents as stakeholders taxpayers. Not all taxpayers are parents but taxpayers have a vested...
- They Want Money (9)
- > tdaxp: Hey Stephen, Excellent comment! I agree with your first point — my verbiage was ambiguous and inartful. I...
- > Stephen Pampinella: Two main critiques. “middle and high class parents fear that it will be their child who does not...
- Global Guerrillaism or Idiocy? (17)
- Review of “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger,” by Marc Levinson (4)
- > tdaxp: Interesting! No, I hadn’t heard of Aerotropolis – thanks for the rec! Right now I’m working my...
- > Michael: Have you read Aerotropolis yet? It covers similar conceptual territory only the agent of change studied is the...
- > tdaxp: Fascinating! All I know about the A&P is from Jim Collins [1,2], so it’s great that it’s getting...
- > Eddie: A great review! Levinson’s most recent contribution is also well-worth readers’ time. Its flawed only...
- The Lobotomy of Low Wages (6)
- > tdaxp: Jack, Great comment! I would imagine you are right. In my experience pre-service high-school teachers tend to be...
- > Jack Brown: How much of the lower pay for teachers is due to the number of people getting education degrees? I have a...
August 20th, 2010 at 5:13 am
Perhaps you were distracted? Like, oh, a dissertation?
August 20th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Also, I believe TDAXP was married multiple times over the last few years. That can cut into BSG time.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I just discovered the show earlier this spring. My reaction was the same “why was I not watching this while it was on the air?”
P.S. I await a future post on Cylon COIN tactics.
August 20th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Quit trying to hide the fact that I (on several occasions) tried to sell you on BSG years ago… and yet you rejected it each time.
August 21st, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I have the first three seasons on DVD. (Technically, 2nd season is on computer, since I bought it through iTunes…) And have watched all the way through twice. Will kinda be sad to finish it, though. Have been delaying hoping I can get 4th season cheap but will probably break down and get it anyway.
Note to all: I did try, I really tried to watch the follow-up prequel series, but just couldn’t get into it.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
LOl @ the video – attack of The Muppets!
September 6th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Season 3 is one of my favorite seasons of any TV show ever. The occupation storyline is glorious. And Colonel Tigh is my personal hero.
September 17th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Except for Caprica (which, in fairness, seems more like a spin-off aimed at my little sister than a continuation of the mythos), I’ve now finished BSG, including Razer and The Plan.
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Loved the ending.
What should I watch next?
September 17th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Offhand…
TV SHows/Mini-series…
Rome (2 seasons)
The Cell (2 seasons)
The Wire (4 or 5 seasons)
Justified (1 season so far…may not be on DVD yet)
The Pillars of the Earth (11 episodes total)
Slings & Arrows: Season 1,2,3 (18 episodes total)
The IT Crowd Seasons 1,2,3 (18 episodes total)
The Day of the Triffids (6 episodes)
World War II: When Lions Roared (2 episodes)
Rescue Me (multiple season, still on)
Veronica Mars (3 seasons)
Dexter (3 seasons?)
Movies:
The Ramen Girl (movie)
Outsourced (movie)
The Naked Prey (movie)
September 17th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
re: tdaxp The Plan was ridiculous.
re: purpleslog I thought the Pillars of the Earth was a significantly better book than show.
To Watch:
Stargate Universe
Seasons 2 and 3 of Torchwood
The Guild*****
Rome is badass
Deadwood doubly so
September 17th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
The Plan sucked.
Re the Pillars…I never read the book. I was able t ostrem the show from Netflix.
I should have mentioned Deadwood…but it was never finished. Sadly, it never will be.
September 18th, 2010 at 8:04 am
I’m actually ok with the Deadwood wrap-up. It wasn’t the most dramatic and made the Brian Cox character useless (but hey, Brian Cox!) but it was pretty historically accurate. Real life doesn’t tend to result in too many epic showdowns.
The arc was pretty good for the town too, starting out with a few buildings and a shanty town and ending just as they were made official.
Also, I would watch Ian Mcshane read the C($^&s$king Mo#$&erf(#&$ing phonebook.
October 13th, 2010 at 6:26 am
A little past the midway section of the 4th season of Battlestar Galactica: Wow. Some of the episodes are the best of the series. One or two were not quite as good though.
October 16th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
I have finished season 4 and, as expected, I regret that the entire show is finished. Battlestar Galactica is surely one of the best television series of all time. I’m currently leaning toward Gaius Baltar as being the most interesting character in the history of television.
October 17th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
I recruited two more friends to watch it, one of whom is in Season 3 and the other in Season 4.
Fun stuff!
October 17th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Baltar is okay. Well played and interesting for sure. But I love Tigh. Season 3 just cements him as one of my favorite all-time TV characters.