I can't help but side with Rowling in this. She has been very lenient with most fansites, even giving out awards for various ones - including the Lexicon. She was very supportive of it when it was a not-for-profit fansite, but now that he's trying to publish it and make money off of it, she says no. I can't blame her at all for that. From what I can gather from reports I've read, it's only a collection of facts from Rowling's books, and not a collection of critical commentary or essays about her work, so it really isn't fair use at all.
If they'd give the writers a cut of the profit they were making on those ads, I might consider sitting through them. But they claim they aren't making any money! Riiight.
I would love more free/open source teaching materials. I have never met a music textbook I like; they are so often ridiculous, bloated pieces of garbage and it's ridiculous the amount of money that the states spend on them when they aren't even any good.
Next thing they can get rid of (or at least cut back on) is the hideously expensive standardized testing program.
Actually, flash photography is dangerous to performers in certain situations. It can temporarily blind the performers if the flash is at a particular angle or flashes at a particular time, causing them not to be able to see where they are going for a moment, which is dangerous especially at a dance performance.
Besides which, a flash camera is completely useless from a certain distance from the stage.
Oh, I have wished for one of those every time my students put on a concert. A good quarter of the parents sit there on the phone and talk while the students are performing. I've had parents get in arguments with each other when one can't hear his/her kid sing because the other is sitting there running his/her mouth on the phone. Honestly, turn the damn thing off for five minutes or go out in the hall. Nobody else wants to hear your conversation.
Whenever I go to a concert I've paid money for a ticket, I certainly haven't paid money to listen to someone yammer away on the phone.
So rather than casting stones at certain disciplines and lauding others, I'd focus on what I see as the general failure of our educational system right now: we're teaching our children what to think rather than how to think.
You can thank No Child Left Behind for the fact that this is getting worse and won't be getting better anytime soon. The constant teach-to-the-test attitude (which all teachers I know absolutely hate, but it's either do it or lose your job) teaches kids to regurgitate what they've been told, rather than how to figure things out for themselves. They aren't learning how to think anymore.
It's completely DRM free. I've been a subscriber for about a year and I like it a lot. I am a fan of classical, new age, and celtic/world music, so I've found plenty to keep me interested, but if you like major labels artists you'll be disappointed.
I enjoy the fact that even if you cancel your subscription you still keep the songs you paid for. They work just as if you've ripped them from your own CD's. If your computer crashes, you can easily re-download tracks you've already purchased, and you can copy them as many times as you want.
I remember 10 years ago when I got my music degree, we had to take things like aural skills and various instrumental methods classes and ensembles that were only 1 credit hour each but met the same number of clock-hours as a 3 hour class. So the same number of credits but more work. We also had an extra $100 per credit hour fee for private lessons in addition to regular tuition for those hours. And then if you were a music ed major, there was a required 9 credit class only offered in the summer, and if you had a full tuition scholarship that was not included. Ugh.
Add to that most of the deaths just didn't make sense. Except for Mad-Eye (and possibly Dobby), basically all the other major deaths were random, they had no purpose in the story and didn't advance the plot in any major way. The only sacrificial death was Harry, and he didn't even die (and don't get me started on the overly sappy epilogue). If you really want random deaths, you need to read A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin.
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I can't help but side with Rowling in this. She has been very lenient with most fansites, even giving out awards for various ones - including the Lexicon. She was very supportive of it when it was a not-for-profit fansite, but now that he's trying to publish it and make money off of it, she says no. I can't blame her at all for that. From what I can gather from reports I've read, it's only a collection of facts from Rowling's books, and not a collection of critical commentary or essays about her work, so it really isn't fair use at all.
If they'd give the writers a cut of the profit they were making on those ads, I might consider sitting through them. But they claim they aren't making any money! Riiight.
I would love more free/open source teaching materials. I have never met a music textbook I like; they are so often ridiculous, bloated pieces of garbage and it's ridiculous the amount of money that the states spend on them when they aren't even any good.
Next thing they can get rid of (or at least cut back on) is the hideously expensive standardized testing program.
Actually, flash photography is dangerous to performers in certain situations. It can temporarily blind the performers if the flash is at a particular angle or flashes at a particular time, causing them not to be able to see where they are going for a moment, which is dangerous especially at a dance performance. Besides which, a flash camera is completely useless from a certain distance from the stage.
Oh, I have wished for one of those every time my students put on a concert. A good quarter of the parents sit there on the phone and talk while the students are performing. I've had parents get in arguments with each other when one can't hear his/her kid sing because the other is sitting there running his/her mouth on the phone. Honestly, turn the damn thing off for five minutes or go out in the hall. Nobody else wants to hear your conversation. Whenever I go to a concert I've paid money for a ticket, I certainly haven't paid money to listen to someone yammer away on the phone.
You can set up RSS feeds from other sites to view on your friendslist, as this FAQ explains: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?f aqid=137
It's completely DRM free. I've been a subscriber for about a year and I like it a lot. I am a fan of classical, new age, and celtic/world music, so I've found plenty to keep me interested, but if you like major labels artists you'll be disappointed. I enjoy the fact that even if you cancel your subscription you still keep the songs you paid for. They work just as if you've ripped them from your own CD's. If your computer crashes, you can easily re-download tracks you've already purchased, and you can copy them as many times as you want.
I remember 10 years ago when I got my music degree, we had to take things like aural skills and various instrumental methods classes and ensembles that were only 1 credit hour each but met the same number of clock-hours as a 3 hour class. So the same number of credits but more work. We also had an extra $100 per credit hour fee for private lessons in addition to regular tuition for those hours. And then if you were a music ed major, there was a required 9 credit class only offered in the summer, and if you had a full tuition scholarship that was not included. Ugh.