Perhaps you remember Richard from the Imprint article Richard Hoshino teaches for credit. Quote from that article:

Little did these students, or the rest of the UW environment, know that a twenty-two-year-old, third-year student in co-op Math Teaching would become one of the most popular instructors on campus after teaching a third- year problem-solving class for his co-op term.

This report strikes a chord with me because things for me this term are quite bad. I've stopped attending one class completely (PMATH330) and the other (MATH239) I might as well not attend because in both I learn absolutely nothing. Math lectures lose me completely. I was glad to read in Richard's report that I'm not the only one. I must admit that the only reason I attend classes is because of the social stigma attached to not attending and also because it helps to pick up any possible hints for assignments and exams. In semi-ideal Mattland I'd sign up for courses at the beginning of the term skip classes and a week before the midterm hire a math tutor, write the midterm and repeat the process come finals. And of course in ideal Mattland none of this would be necessary because I'd find class worth attending.

My school is failing me and I'm paying the highest computer science tution in the country for this privilege. I had until today believed that the problem was mine. But according to Richard it's not. The problem lies within our lecture-centric classes and dis-interested profs.

Compounding the lecture problem is the exam problem which Ming has already touched upon. How is it possible that our school has taught math for 35 years (we're a young school) and has to adjust the marks on *every single* exam. Is it that hard to set a fair exam? I understand that 7% of the class (those on the Dean's Honours List) need to be challenged, need to stretch their minds, but what about the rest of us? What about the majority of students who make up the classes? For me, writing an un-fair exam, is incredibly taxing and does nothing to build goodwill between me and the faculty. It only deepens my feelings of mathematical inadequacy (it also doesn't help I live with Waterloo's math star).

Don't mis-understand me. I have no doubt that our school produces the best graduates because we only let the best in and only the best (or perhaps we're all masochistic) will survive but could they be smarter?

(I wanted to give you a link but you got a screen full. Sorry about that).
5:55:34 PM   []

On a related note, I will never live and pay taxes to a state, such as Texas, that supports killing its citizen.

Update: So according to ProDeathPenalty.com the States I could live in are: Alaska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, North Dakota, West Virginia, Iowa, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
12:49:39 PM   []

Problems with the article include:

• Referring to the tariff as a tax which is incorrect and misleading
• It's intended to compensate rightsholders not musicians
• There's already a tariff on products in Canada. This proposal is merely a prospoal to increase the tariffs in place not introduce them.
• I spoke with the CPCC yesterday, they don't know where the Globe got the $22 million figure for last year.
• The CPCC has not distributed any funds to rights holders

10:11:37 AM   []