Love and the holidays

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Infographic Christmas!

Infographic Christmas!

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Happy Boxing Day!

From Visually.

Infographic Christmas!

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Infographic Friday

Fall Equinox or first day of Winter is today

Source:OurAmazingPlanet

Nothing in Tennessee

Cough--Pigeon Forge--cough, cough. But there are several not too far away including Asheville and McAdenville, NC; Helen, GA; and the redneck riviera: Myrtle Beach. We spent New Years Eve in Myrtle Beach last year. From MSN.Com.

America’s 50 most charming small towns for the holidays

29 - ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA 

If you’re near Asheville, North Carolina this holiday season, it’s worth making a trip to the North Carolina Arboretum, where thousands of colored LED lights transform the landscape into a dazzling holiday wonderland.

Happy National Sangria Day!

by WineEnthusiast.

From Visually.

The best vacation spot in Tennessee?

Nashville, according to MSN.com. I might have thought Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, but those compiling the list might be less redneck than I. Corolla in the Outer Banks was North Carolina's, Beaufort was South Carolina's, and Richmond was Virginia's.

The Best Vacation Spot in Every U.S. State

Tennessee: Nashville

It’s called the country capital of the world for a reason. For a vacation full of live music, honkey-tonk and lots of bourbon drinking, head immediately to this bustling town.

Promises, promises

The number of high school students signing up for Tennessee Promise continues to grow. Good news from The Tennessean.

Most Tennessee high school students apply for Tennessee Promise program

Almost 85 percent of all graduating Tennessee high school students this year signed up for Tennessee Promise. 

The scholarship program provides two years tuition-free at state community or technical colleges, and the deadline for applications closed Wednesday night. 

The number of students applying in the program's 4th year — 62,860 of the state's more than 74,000 graduating seniors in public and private schools — eclipses all expectations for those that administer the scholarship.  

Overall, the number of students that applied is up about 4 percentage points over last year.  

'"I think we always believed it was going to be transformative," said Mike Krause, Tennessee Higher Education Commission executive director. "We didn’t believe it would become so central so quickly."

With so many students signing up, it brings about a moment where Tennessee Promise administrators are beginning to ask what's next, Krause said. 

About a third of all students will use the scholarship, he said. A third might not go to college at all. And the rest will head to a four-year institution. 

For those that don't go to college at all, Krause said the state must begin to look at more support for those at-risk and ensure they are being reached out to in an intentional way. 

"It's often students that are first generation whose parents maybe didn’t attend. It's about not having a frame of reference," he said. "If you can't visualize it, it's hard to convince them to take them to next steps."

Infographic Friday

From Visually.

I always did like Gallatin

The nicest place in America, according to Readers Digest.

Nicest Place in America 2017 Winner: Gallatin, Tennessee!

Gallatin is our winner for Nicest Places in America 2017. Aside from winning our online popular vote, Gallatin separated itself from the pack among our judges, who felt that the town’s story of racial reconciliation and grace through hardship really showed what “nice” is made of. It’s easy to be “nice” when things are going well. It’s much harder when folks face challenges. (Read more about Gallatin and why it’s the Nicest Place in America in 2017.) 

Sadly,

None of the happiest cities in the country can be found in Tennessee. Sigh. From The National Geographic.

These Are the Happiest Cities in the United States

Who are the happiest Americans? Ask this question anywhere from Montauk to Maui and you’re bound to pique interest (you may even pick a fight). While fans of the film Moana might sing the lyrics “Happiness is where you are,” for scientists studying the roots and fruits of happiness, location-specific qualities of place, community, and opportunity powerfully inform the way we feel about our lives. 

National Geographic, bestselling author Dan Buettner, and Gallup’s social scientists teamed up to develop an index that assesses measurable expressions of happiness and identifies where Americans are living their best lives. Designed by Gallup senior scientist Dan Witters, the study established 15 metrics—from eating healthy and learning something new every day to civic engagement, financial security, vacation time, and even dental checkups—that signal happiness. The National Geographic Gallup Special/Blue Zones Index draws on nearly 250,000 interviews conducted with adults from 2014 to 2015 in 190 metropolitan areas across the U.S. 

The winner: Boulder, Colorado. Bolstered by a sense of community, access to nature, sustainable urban development and preservation policies, and perhaps even that clean mountain air, Boulderites overwhelmingly feel “active and productive every day,” according to Buettner’s research. Per capita, more people walk to work in Boulder than in any other city in the U.S. Low rates of smoking and obesity, and high rates of exercise, contribute to the satisfaction locals feel. Life is not always rosy in the Rockies—stress is on the rise; on average, 49 percent of locals surveyed reported feeling stress—but the qualities that keep Boulder on top make this city America’s happiest.

Happy Hanakkah!

Down by the lazy river

My curiosity piqued by an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, I googled my alma mater's lazy river. Sure enough. Had it been around during my time at Iowa, I would have been too busy to use it much. But maybe I could have taken the kids.

The Lure of the Lazy River

Lazy rivers, while still relatively rare in higher education, are becoming a staple at public universities known for big-time college sports and vibrant social scenes. You’ll find them at the Universities of Alabama, Iowa, and Missouri and at Texas Tech. The University of Central Florida has plans to build a lazy river just for athletes, as part of a "Recovery Cove" that will also include miniature golf and beach-volleyball courts.

Infographic Friday

Threats to public research universities

Like my alma mater, The University of Iowa. From The Atlantic.

The Decline of the Midwest's Public Universities Threatens to Wreck Its Most Vibrant Economies

But university research is in trouble, and so is an economy more dependent on it than many people understand. Federal funding for basic research—more than half of it conducted on university campuses like this one—has effectively declined since 2008, failing to keep pace with inflation. This is before taking into account Trump administration proposals to slash the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) budgets by billions of dollars more. 

Trump’s cuts would affect all research universities, but not equally. The problem is more pronounced at public universities than private ones, and especially at public institutions in the Midwest, which have historically conducted some of the nation’s most important research. These schools are desperately needed to diversify economies that rely disproportionately on manufacturing and agriculture and lack the wealthy private institutions that fuel the knowledge industries found in Silicon Valley or along Boston’s 128/I-95 corridor. Yet many flagship Midwestern research universities are being weakened by deep state budget cuts. Threats to pensions (in Illinois) and tenure (in Wisconsin) portend an exodus of faculty and their all-important research funding, and have already resulted in a frenzy of poaching by better-funded and higher-paying private institutions, industry, and international competitors. 

While private institutions are better shielded from funding cuts by huge endowments, Midwestern public universities have much thinner buffers. The endowments of the universities of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois and Ohio State, which together enroll nearly 190,000 students, add up to about $11 billion—less than a third of Harvard’s $37.6 billion. Together, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, which enroll about 50,000 students combined, have more than $73 billion in the bank to help during lean times. They also have robust revenues from high tuitions, wealthy alumni donors, strong credit, and other support to fall back on. Compare that to the public university system in Illinois, which has cut its higher-education budget so deeply that Moody’s downgraded seven universities, including five to junk-bond status.

This ominous reality could widen regional inequality, as brainpower, talent, and jobs leave the Midwest and the Rust Belt—where existing economic decline may have contributed to the decisive shift of voters toward Donald Trump—for places with well-endowed private and better-funded public universities. Already, some Midwestern universities have had to spend millions from their battered budgets to hang on to research faculty being lured away by wealthier schools. A handful of faculty have already left, taking with them most if not all of their outside funding. 

“We’re in the early stages of the stratification of public research universities,” said Dan Reed, the vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa. “The good ones will remain competitive. The rest may decline.” Those include the major public universities established since the 1860s, when a federal grant set aside land for them in every state. “We spent 150-plus years building a public higher-education system that was the envy of the world,” said Reed, who got his graduate degrees at Purdue, in Indiana. “And we could in a decade do so much damage that it could take us 30 years to recover.”

A useful word from the Urban Dictionary

Disastrophe

A combination of the words 'disaster' and 'catastrophe' indicating a very serious and very tragic event. A tragedy of epic proportions.
The flood was a disastrophe for that region of the United States.

Creating the narrative

When the narrative is you. I always said my English major helped me tremendously in both graduate school and in my career. Writing abstracts was a snap. I could write a persuasive essay/email/justification/budget request. Constant email usage has deteriorated my skills somewhat, especially proofreading skills, but my writing is still a powerful tool. From the Pacific Standard.

STUDYING HUMANITIES TEACHES YOU HOW TO GET A JOB

"If you're studying interpretive dance, God bless you, but there's not a lot of jobs right now in America looking for people with that as a skill set," Kentucky governor Matt Bevin declared in September, at a conference about higher education. Bevin's skepticism about the humanities and arts isn't an anomaly; politicians regularly joke about the supposed uselessness of non-STEM training. In 2014, President Barack Obama told students to major in trades rather than art history. In 2011, Governor Rick Scott of Florida said that it wasn't of "vital interest" to his state to have students major in anthropology. And so on. Math, engineering, science, trades: Those are practical, politicians agree. Literature, art, and anthropology? Those don't help you get jobs. 

In fact, the reverse is true: The skills you learn in the humanities are exactly the skills you use in a job search. The humanities teach students to understand the different rules and expectations that govern different genres, to examine social cues and rituals, to think about the audience for and reception of different kinds of communications. In short, they teach students how to apply for the kinds of jobs students will be looking for after college. 

This is not the usual argument in defense of the humanities. Usually, those rebutting STEM-obsessed politicians point to the spiritual role of the arts, or evoke the general benefits of critical thinking. "The humanities conserve and safeguard those aspects of our being that intersect with the meanings of human existence beyond industry," Sarah Churchwell, chair of public humanities at the University of London, writes. Churchwell isn't wrong: The humanities do have value that isn't easily reflected in dollars and cents on the market. So do non-humanities fields, for that matter. Math and science and nursing and engineering can all create a sense of curiosity, wonder, and civic engagement. But these fields also have potential career benefits—and the humanities have as well.

Activate the caregiving algorithm

Slate magazine on automation and future occupations. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords....

The Last Human Job

What abilities will set humans apart from machines? 

It’s been a question at the center of decades of science fiction, and one that’s taken on increasing real-world urgency as we try to anticipate how the advancing artificial intelligence revolution will transform the way we work and live. 

An emerging consensus suggests that two characteristics make humans distinct from machines: care and empathy. Machines may trounce humans at repetitive, predictable, and production-heavy jobs. But technology still falls behind with tasks that require context, nuance, constant adaptation, and emotional intelligence. 

Because of this, research organizations—including the University of Oxford, McKinsey Global Institute, PwC, and the Shift Commission—predict that even though millions of jobs will likely be partially or fully automated in the coming decades, care-focused professions will, at least in the short term, largely remain the domain of human workers. (Disclosure: The Shift Commission is co-chaired by New America, a partner with Slate and Arizona State University in Future Tense.)

Infographic Friday

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

Only of interest

To an old English major like me. But I love this stuff! And this analysis of Mary Poppins holds together quite well. My only quibble is the title since the film is not really a retelling of the whole Bible, but a certain theme from the Bible. From Paste.

Mary Poppins Is a Retelling of the Bible

The movie title of John Lee Hancock’s Tom Hanks vehicle had it right: Mary Poppins is all about saving Mr. Banks. But from whom? Who is this mortal man, Banks (David Tomlinson), and why should he raise such a hubbub in 1910 London, capital of the world? Why should Mary Poppins be involved? 

Simple: The 1964 movie Mary Poppins is a retelling of the Bible. It’s a tale of the cosmic struggle between God and the Devil. Call it the Book of Job reimagined, or Damn Yankees, or any of those old stories where Good and Evil cleverly duel for a single man’s soul.

Finish that dissertation!

I always tell graduate students that they need to love their topic because it's going to dominate their lives for the next year. And if it doesn't dominate their lives, they will never finish. Here are eighteen more tips from Buzzfeed. My advice is paraphrased in the first tip.

18 Tips Every Student Should Know Before They Start Their Dissertation

1. Choose a topic you're truly interested in. 

"Pick a topic/question that you are passionate about and have interest in. I completed my dissertation this year and I’m so glad I chose an interest of mine, I know people who lost interest after a few weeks."

What do Tennessee high school graduates

Do after finishing high school? Thirty-nine percent don't attend postsecondary eduction. The Drive to 55 needs to lower that percentage. From The Tennessean.

Tennessee's newest report sheds light on student choices after high school

For Tennessee, of the state's 63,194 high school graduates in 2016, about a third went into four-year universities, a quarter enrolled in community college and about 3 percent went to a technical college, the report, compiled by the Tennessee Department of Education with data from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, shows. 

The remainder of the graduates didn't enroll in any college — 39 percent. 

And postsecondary enrollment rates differed across different groups of students relative to the state as a whole, the report shows. 

Just over 50 percent of black, Hispanic, or Native American students and economically disadvantaged students progressed into postsecondary. 

And for students with disabilities and English learners, just a third of students enrolled in postsecondary following graduation.

Happy National Electric Guitar Day!

Find more great infographics on NerdGraph Infographics

No thanks, I had eels for lunch

What, no tofurky? From TopTenz.

Top 10 Foods the Pilgrims Probably Ate at the First Thanksgiving

10. Eels

It is well known that Squanto took pity on the Pilgrims, and helped teach them how to live off of the land and water. One of the hunting methods that Squanto taught them was to spear eels, who were curled up in muddy areas during colder weather. As a matter of fact, the feast made when the Pilgrims made peace with the leader of the Massosoit tribe was a feast of eels. The hunting of eels is also backed up by Pilgrim accounts. So yes, instead of cranberries, the first Thanksgiving would have probably featured a second helping of eel. Just like Grandma used to make.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From Visually.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Courtesy of: Bedding Stock

Happy Thanksgiving!

by Ghergich.

From Visually.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, here's some info about last year's

Source: WalletHub

Outsourcing dead

In Tennessee higher education? Only Austin Peay State University bought into the Governor's plan. And only at UT Knoxville, were the projected saving substantial. 5.2 million dollars substantial, that is. From The Tennessean.

University of Tennessee board of trustees criticize Knoxville decision on outsourcing

The University of Tennessee board of trustees on Friday slammed a decision by Knoxville Chancellor Beverly Davenport to not participate in facilities outsourcing, even as Davenport argued the university wouldn't save as much by outsourcing as promised.  

In a presentation to the board, Davenport said UT Knoxville would only save $906,654 in the first year of outsourcing with private company Jones Lang LaSalle, compared to the $5.2 million the company estimated. 

The university is already making its own improvements in efficiency; an outside company would not be able to handle the complexity of work associated with facilities management in research departments and the change could be harmful to the local economy, Davenport listed as additional reasons for her decision.  

Trustees criticized the decision saying it lacked financial justification and would make it hard to go to the state to ask for money in the future. 

Outsourcing of facilities work on college campuses is part of a plan by Gov. Bill Haslam to expand an existing state contract with JLL for what was originally estimated to be an additional $35 million in annual cost savings across the state. 

Jubran says justification is lacking 

"I’m not worried that this governor and (Finance and Administration Commissioner Larry Martin) will do the right thing in the best interest of the UT system, regardless of the slaps in the face that we gave them," said board Vice Chair Raja Jubran in a statement read at Friday's board meeting. "They are committed to the state. They are committed to the right thing whether we do the wrong thing or not."   

Jubran and other members of the board were mainly critical of Davenport's decision to not outsource facilities work at that campus, though the UT Health Science Center in Memphis also stood to save close to 10 percent of its facilities budget but is choosing to only use some of the services offered by JLL. 

Infographic Friday

- See more at: http://ww2.ambitenergy.com/spark/colorful-fall-leaves-can-lead-to-bright-spring-flowers#sthash.mvi1x7Vd.dpuf

Betcha thought

Vanderbilt would be on this list from Worldation.com.  But no. It turns out that few of these are in the South, and, of course, nearly no one pays full price. And the most expensive is...

The 31 most expensive colleges in America

Harvey Mudd College 

Cost per year: $67,255. And here we have it, ladies and gentlemen – the most expensive college in America! Harvey Mudd College is situated in Claremont, California and is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to courses such as mathematics, engineering, and science. Despite its hefty price tag and its full-on workload, the location of the college is beautiful and relaxing, and the perfect way to chill out after a hard day’s study. Just a shame we can’t afford it…

College advice from across the pond

Some of these translate over here better than others. I've listed the top five below, and I don't even know what number four means. From BuzzFeed.

35 Things All Students Learn In Their First Week At Uni

1. Your name doesn’t matter anymore and you will only introduce yourself by saying what course you’re on and where you’re from. 

2. The Domino's free freshers’ week pizza is your best friend. 

3. You will learn that you can never specifically say where you live. You have to say how far you are from the nearest big city like“oh I’m from near Liverpool”. 

4. Your accent is stronger than you think, and yes, people can take the mick out of it for three whole years. 

5. But you will also have a hand in taking the mick out of everyone else’s accent.

Unsurprisingly, two towns from around here are on this list

Gatlinburg and Asheville. I thought Boone or Blowing Rock might make the list, as well. Visit Blowing Rock and you step into a Norman Rockwell painting. From MSN.Com.

The 20 Best Mountain Towns in America

GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE

A worthy stop on any road trip across the American South, Gatlinburg puts you face-to-face with Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When you're not hitting the park trails, check out Ripley's Aquarium or the Hollywood Star Cars Museum, or head downtown. That bustling district, which is filled with mountain-themed specialty shops, lights up from November to February each year for the not-to-be-missed annual Winterfest Celebration. 

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA 

While the opulent Biltmore Estate is well worth the trip south of the city center to Biltmore Village, it's the breathtaking Blue Ridge Parkway that steals the spotlight in Asheville. The 469-mile road carves through a mesmerizing landscape of lush foliage, crowned by the silhouette of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Throw in the spectacular Spanish baroque architecture of the Basilica of St. Lawrence and the historic Grove Park Inn, born of the Arts and Crafts movement, and it's easy to see why the city earned a spot as one of Frommer's top seven places to live in the United States in 2007.

A list that Memphis

Is glad to be included in. This is a list of mid-size cities, so some of the usual suspects are excluded. From CBSNews.com.

7 best cities for job seekers in 2017

6. Memphis

The Southern city, which has about 1.3 million residents in its metropolitan region, currently offers more than 42,300 job openings. Top employers include FedEx (FDX) and International Paper (IP).
The median base salary is $41,200. While that may seem low, the median home value stands at just $119,700, at the bottom of the seven best cities for job seekers. 

The type of jobs that are available in Memphis include software engineer, physical therapist and maintenance technician.

Infographic Friday

by NowSourcing.

From Visually.

At the TACHE Conference in Memphis

At the TACHE Conference

Happy National Shot Day!

Embedded from BestInfographics.co

Gaming the system?

Fueled by Tennessee Promise students, Cumberland University see rapid enrollment growth. Growth at many Nashville-area colleges shows that Nashville is booming. Although now that public universities all have their own governing boards, I wonder if state universities will be allowed to offer associate degrees in the future? From The Tennessean.

At Cumberland University, explosive growth offers a case study for a regional trend

On Monday, the university announced that enrollment had surged by nearly 50 percent since he started as president in the fall of 2015. 

This semester's enrollment of 2,314 students represents an all-time high for the school. 

Stumb said the jump was the result of targeted efforts to entice specific groups of students. 

They've added new sports like archery, track and men's volleyball to attract more athletes. They're working with a nonprofit to recruit more students using Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a federal program for young people who were brought to the country illegally or overstayed their visas as children. 

And they have a partnership with Wilson County Schools to offer dual enrollment courses that give high school students an early jump at college credit. 

But one of the biggest recruitment tools Cumberland has used is the state's Tennessee Promise program, which allows young people to get a tuition-free associate's degree at community colleges. 

Cumberland is one of a handful of four-year universities to participate, and it took the extra step of lowering its tuition rate for those students to match the state's scholarship amount. 

"Initially, the Tennessee Promise scared a lot of private schools," Stumb said. "We decided that it was in our best interest and also in the best interest of the students ... for us to support that program." 

The result has been striking. 

About 500 Tennessee Promise students are enrolled at Cumberland today, accounting for a large portion of the university's growth. Now, Stumb said, the focus is on keeping those students at Cumberland for their junior and senior years — after the scholarship ends.

Mama, don't let your babies grow up

In West Tennessee. Jackson is number 25 on this list and Memphis is number 20. From MSN.com.

Worst Cities to Raise Children

In a country as large and diverse as the United States, not all areas are equal when it comes to raising children. While the number of factors that can affect a child's development is seemingly limitless, there are a few core measures related to safety, school district quality, and amenities that can make all the difference between one area and another. And in some parts of the country, children are at a considerable disadvantage. 

24/7 Wall St. created an index to identify the 25 worst U.S. metro areas in which to raise a child. All but two cities on this list are located in the either the western or southern United States. 

The ideal city in which to raise children should be safe and have quality schools and plenty of recreational amenities. Only metro areas with some combination of high violent crime rates, low preschool enrollment rates, low high school graduation rates, and limited access to parks and recreation centers made this list. 

Relatively violent cities with fewer amenities and worse educational outcomes also often tend to be relatively poor. In 21 of the 25 cities on this list, the child poverty rate is higher than the 20.7% U.S. rate. 

Serious financial hardship is likely partially the result of poor economic conditions. As of June 2017, the unemployment rate was higher than the 4.4% U.S. jobless rate in 18 of the 25 cities on this list.

Infographic Friday

Embedded from Bluebird Care

Eight days a week

Is just enough to let go your cares. Initially, I was intrigued by the Journal of Happiness Studies mentioned below. Does that mean happiness studies is a academic major somewhere? Could I have doubled-majored in happiness and leisure studies? Seriously, though, don't cut your vacations short. From Lifehacker.

Why Relaxing Vacations Should Be at Least Eight Days Long

Sometimes a quick vacation is better than nothing, but if you can swing it, try for at least eight days. Research suggests you need at least that much time to truly unwind and feel refreshed. 

The research, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, suggests that your feelings of happiness and personal well-being rapidly increase as soon as you take that break from the rat race. Then, your relaxation and positive vibes peak on day eight of your getaway, maximizing your feelings of contentment. After that, your enjoyment slowly fades away until day 11, where you’re likely to experience a severe drop-off—maybe due to a bit of homesickness or even boredom. Why day eight? They think that’s how long it takes someone on average to forget and let go of all of their work responsibilities and stress. 

Unfortunately, the study also suggests that how long you’re away doesn’t have a huge affect on your happiness after the fun is over. Whether you’re gone for at least eight days or not, those happy-go-lucky effects will likely fade away after just one day of being back at work. You might still feel refreshed, of course, but your mind is quick to snap back to reality when it realizes vacation mode is over.

November is National Diabetes Month

From Visually.

- See more at: http://visual.ly/national-diabetes-month-november#sthash.Mo7jXIo3.dpuf

Happy Halloween!

[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]

Happy Halloween

Image Created by HalloweenCostumes.com

How to dress as Spider-Man tomorrow

Infographic Created by HalloweenCostumes.com

Infographic Friday

From Visually.

Save the date

ACHE South Annual Conference

At the ACHE Conference in Portland. ACHE South is in Austin this spring.

by SpareFoot.

From Visually.