Metafilter linked to a video critiquing the “new math” taught in elementary school.

Interesting stuff. I was brought up using the “traditional” algorithm, rather than the methods taught by TERC. Nowadays I usually use Excel formulas to calculate out numbers, but agree that the traditional algorithm provides the most solid foundation for learning simple calculation.

Sample Thomson logo from the old days:

McCain/Palin logo held up by the crowd at the 2008 RNC:

Who knew publisher logos could be so… Republican?

The Washington Post published an article discussing the rise of Graphic Novels:

I’ve wandered into an alternative universe, and I’m trying to decide if I want to stay. The setting is the lovely, old-fashioned library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, in midtown Manhattan. The event is a gathering called “SPLAT! A Graphic Novel Symposium.” I’m here because the organizers have promised to lay out, in the course of a single day, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Graphic Novels.”

What I want to know is: How did this formerly ghettoized medium became one of the rare publishing categories that’s actually expanding these days?

More at: Drawing Power

Found at: Metafilter.

Julia Phillips, Oscar-winning producer on Taxi Driver, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Sting, writes:

When a job comes up on the set that no one else has to do, according to job definition, the producer gets to do it. This comes up on a regular basis, usually because someone else didn’t do his job, didn’t do his job well, or didn’t think of the job in the first place.

page 519, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again“

An intriguing definition, from a movie Producer who routinely had to deal with the most intense crises imaginable.

Looks like Cengage is back in the acquisition business:

Houghton Mifflin Selling College Unit

Houghton Mifflin to Sell College Division to Cengage for $750M

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Houghton Mifflin Co. is selling its college textbook unit to Cengage Learning for $750 million so it can focus on its publishing business geared toward kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as trade and reference publications.

Cengage, previously known as Thomson Learning, said Monday’s cash transaction would help broaden its education products, including textbooks and study guides.

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin and Stamford, Conn.-based Cengage also said they planned a long-term agreement to cooperate in expanding distribution of Cengage’s book titles into the U.S. market for high school advanced placement textbooks.

More here.

It’ll be interesting to see how the various moves and shakes affect the quality of the books, which never seems to be talked about.  It’s easy enough for a new edition or a 10th edition to get ground down beneath the HR shakeups and employee migrations that accompany a sale like this.