Clevelander17

Still not sold. This feels like fool's gold and coming at the worst possible time (tricking the management into buying when they probably should be selling). With 63 games left, the Tribe still has a roster that is several pieces short of being a playoff team.

Yep. That's how I took it. The current NCAA leadership was sending a clear message that the "good ole days" and the "old boys networks" are over..... the era people nostagically look back upon as a "better time in history" won't repeat itself. The Powers That Be at these powerhouse schools will be held accountable. No one is above the law. If the hammer can come down on JoePa, it can drop on anybody I just hope it's consistently enforced. There are a lot of schools in a certain part of the country where a similar type of culture putting football above all else is rampant.

That's the thing, I don't want to imagine any scenario where Batman/Wayne returns to Gotham City...especially if, as speculated, it won't be directed by Nolan and portrayed by Bale. But I agree with your point about the necessity of him staying alive in the context of character development. Personally I just wanted to see the trilogy end on the note of him dying to save the city, but I realize that a lot of fans will disagree with that.

Yeah I caught all of that with the auto-pilot. I think the intent of the writers was to make it crystal clear that he lived (and that's what I originally thought, too). Just saying that in doing some internet reading I've found that some viewers thought the final scene was just too perfect to be anything other than Alfred dreaming. I just think it would have been really powerful if Batman/Bruce Wayne had, in that one last altruistic act to save the city, given his life in the process to put a final exclamation point on the trilogy. I don't think it had to have such a happy ending. I've reboot rumors, too. It's my understanding that, whatever happens, Nolan and Bale are done.

I've never been a big fan of comic books or their movie adaptations, but for some reason I've always liked Batman, particularly from watching the cartoon series a lot growing up. For me it's not really about DC versus Marvel versus whatever else is out there. Regardless I do think that Nolan did an excellent job with the trilogy. Anyways now that the spoiler tag has been put on, let me ask: -Is Bruce Wayne alive at the end? (There seems to be some debate about this on the internet. When I saw him at the cafe in Italy with Selina after thinking he perished saving Gotham City, I was a little frustrated.) -Does the Blake/Robin scene set up the movie for another director to run with? I hope not...

So has anyone actually seen the movie? What did you think? A couple of thoughts: -I think the ending, particularly one plot point in particular, should have been changed to make the story a little better/darker. -Tom Hardy's portrayal of Bane was outstanding IMO and worthy of Best Supporting Actor consideration. -Overall I thought the movie was really good with excellent production and a strong storyline, but The Dark Knight was still better. I feel a tad letdown, mostly because my expectations were so high, but I do think it capped off the trilogy very well.

Thank you for the information and classifications! Best of luck, I know I will check this place out when it opens.

I think you answered your own question. His numbers have been abysmal since the beginning of last season...I wouldn't expect much.

It's a moot point. He's got ~$14 million in his hands as of yesterday. ;)

Except for that eight figure signing bonus.

I do really like the Walnut Hills model and I do think that large urban districts can and should try to have at least one or two schools that copy that model (Cleveland has had that with the aforementioned John Hay for about five years now). That said, and I'm sure you would know better than I would, but I've always gotten the impression that Walnut Hills is pretty darn selective in who is admitted. It also probably helps that the kids that aren't making it can be dismissed or will probably head back to their neighborhood schools by choice. Things like selectivity, attrition, and parental involvement/motivation can go a long way to making a school look very good, even if what's going on in the actual school is only average or even only slightly above average. That's not to say that that's the entire picture at Walnut Hills, but I do think it's a factor, at least as far as the higher state/national rankings go. Same goes with most honors and magnet schools and something that's true of many of the highest scoring charter schools. But the point with schools like these is that in districts with large concentrations of kids and families that don't take education seriously, these schools give the students and families that do really care and/or are really talented a chance to learn in a safe and constructive environment.

I see it a little differently...I don't think that the NCAA's actions were really about child abuse, it was more about letting other institutions know that a coach and a program can never be allowed to become bigger than the school. The Big Ten also dropped sanctions on PSU today, basically saying that they won't receive any bowl shares (about $13 million) over the next four seasons. That money will go to a children's defense fund as well.

I don't think the K-8 discussion is an extremely important one, either. I just find it interesting and there has been some research on the issue. A lot of charter schools have longer school days or even school years and some keep teachers on call well into the evening. I'm not sure what the data concludes about how this affects student performance (mostly positive, I'd guess), but I have heard/read some things about how it can negatively affect teacher burnout and attrition, which I think has to bring up some questions about whether such a thing is realistic on a large scale. What's going on in Finland is intriguing to me, though I'm not sure it's instructive (i.e. I don't know how much can be repeated in the United States). From what I understand, they certainly don't spend as much time worrying about standardized testing or teaching to the test, they have a lot of social support for students that need it (meals/medical care), the teaching profession is regarded as being prestigious (and on a number of levels it's treated as such), they don't track kids by ability, but perhaps most important of all, IMO...the population is incredibly homogenous compared to ours. So I'm not sure how much of their model translates to us, though there are definitely some good ideas there. Thank you for those TED videos, I will check them out as I have not seen them yet. TED introduced me to education innovators like Sal Khan (and Khan Academy) and many others, but I had not heard of Sugata Mitra.

Wow, that's crazy. I also heard on the radio that there will almost certainly be a provision allowing current PSU athletes (football only?) to transfer without penalty.

I agree with for the most part on your first point so I won't even bother quoting it. On the above point, I don't know. My gut reaction about K-8 schools was always that they're not a good idea, either. However in reading some articles about the issue, it seems that there are some potential benefits of such a grade configuration, including community-building, mentoring and support opportunities for middle school-aged students, giving students one less school transition (at a difficult time period, no less), etc. Additionally some studies have shown that kids in K-8 schools achieve more in the middle school grades than their 6-8 peers, but I don't think there is any conclusive evidence on that. Other urban districts in Ohio have gone the K-8 route, such as the Warren district, and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights district has discussed it as part of their facilities master plan but residents haven't been thrilled with it. Overall this is a trend that has yet to make much headway in suburban districts, for whatever that piece of information is worth.

In discussing/debating educational topics with some other posters on other threads, I thought it might be interesting to try to get an education thread going to talk about some of the innovative and interesting educational news and trends occurring in urban areas around the country. Some possible lines of discussion: *School reconfigurations (districts going back to K-8 and/or trying specialized 7-12 or even other formats) *Charter schools *Distance education for K-12 *District consolidation *Efficacy of programs like Teach For America *Cleveland's transformation plan (including the important upcoming levy) I guess talking about Cleveland's upcoming levy request is as good as any place to start. The city is asking for a huge increase. Will it pass? If it doesn't, how successful can the plan be with limited funding?

Reports are saying that Penn State will not challenge the penalties, meaning that in all likelihood they were some discussions/negotiations that occurred beforehand between the NCAA and PSU.

I don't think this team is a real contender and in reality I think that unloading some assets to help re-build the farm system would be their best bet for the long-term. However doing so would obviously alienate the fanbase even further so that's not really an option. It's kind of frustrating that they ended up in this gray area right before the trade deadline. I don't see last year's Ubaldo trade as preventing them from making a move this year, I just don't believe they have much left in the minor leagues at the moment to put together a trade for a potentially game-changing piece (and really I think they're multiple pieces away from being a true contender, but that's completely out of the question IMO).

The Baseball Hall of Fame has been around in an official capacity for almost eight decades. Of course starting a competing hall of fame at this point would make little sense. How long has the Geppi Museum been around? The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has a "competitor" in Seattle in the Experience Music Project, I don't see why a similar situation, if done right, couldn't arise in the comic realm with Cleveland building a museum to honor artists with ties to the city.

Hopefully this works: The skyline in the background looks sort of familiar.

I do. In fact I even think that it will start drawing many of the more suburban-minded folks from North/Northeast Cuyahoga County that for whatever reason don't feel like going to the Cleveland Heights location (when in the past that was their only option). Just my opinion, though.

So these Bynum to Cleveland trade rumors are starting up again.

The Cleveland Clinic also has its own legal police department and I'm fairly certain that CWRU does, too. What about GCRTA? I've always been curious about just how much authority these departments have...particularly I'm wondering if, for instance, the Cleveland Clinic PD could start doing things like setting up speed traps or even making routine traffic stops along Chester or Carnegie?

I don't know if I agree with this, though I'm just going with my perception. I think there is a "nice" area of South Euclid and to me it's located roughly east of Belvoir and south of Mayfield, centered around Notre Dame College and bordering Mayfield Country Club. Growing up in an area of University Heights near Cedar Center, I do sort of see a difference in what is happening just on the other side of the border now compared to how it was when I was younger. That neighborhood is certainly changing and I don't get the feeling that it's for the better. Maybe it's just bias and I'm being unfair, but it's just my opinion and I'm not a stranger to that area.

I think that South Euclid (particularly the northern and western portions of the city) can expect to see more of this type of stuff. The worm has already turned in that area and I don't think that adding low-end retail like Walmart is going to help any.