This 'n' That

MANIFESTO

Gadding about the New York Times this morning ...

Re the NCLBA: The House is currently looking to reform said act, but the Times opines that the bill

looks very much like a stealth attempt to gut the national school accountability effort [since it] would permit the states to ignore the parts of the law that require them to pursue corrective actions at failing schools. That would encourage lassitude in states and districts that have already dragged their feet for too long. It would sap the energy of states that have shown clear progress since the law was passed and are eager to move forward. Once stopped, the reform effort could take years to get moving again.

Anyway, the Times notes that

Civil rights groups have begun a welcome attack on a House bill that would temporarily exempt the states from the all-important accountability requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act ... Recent events suggest that the civil rights establishment generally is ready to break with the teachers’ unions and take an independent stand on education reform.

I'm not sure the law is necessarily beneficial to minorities—seeing Hartford's and Bridgeport's high schools identified as deficient year after year doesn't seem helpful to me. Be that as it may, if civil rights organizations see the law as aiding their cause, I may have to reconsider my feelings on the subject.

Re the plutocracy:

Exxon Mobil reported the best quarterly profit ever for a corporation on Thursday, beating its own record ...

The company’s income for the second quarter rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. That beat the previous record of $11.66 billion set by Exxon in the last three months of 2007.

Exxon’s profits were nearly $90,000 a minute over the quarter.

I don't think commentary is necessary on this rapacity.

Finally, the paper reports on a possible magic bullet couch potatoes have been longing for:

Researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego reported that they had found two drugs that did wonders for the athletic endurance of couch potato mice. One drug, known as Aicar, increased the mice’s endurance on a treadmill by 44 percent after just four weeks of treatment ...

[The drug] tricks the muscles into thinking they have been working out furiously.

Working out by remote control: It's certainly a concept most Americans would love.