A Star in the Window

My dad was a kid during WWII, and followed the battles and generals as kids follow sports teams and stars today. He has collected war pins, for example, and some have one or more stars in the center. I learned that when a family lost someone in the war, they would display that poster, flag, or pin with the gold star(s) to show that a loved one(s) had died in battle. Today, as I was driving to work I for the first time saw such a flag with a star displayed in a neighbor's window. It wasn't there yesterday.

When I was a kid during the Vietnam War, the paper used to publish each day how many men were killed or wounded on each side. It was like some sort of perverse scorecard. I'd see how many more of the enemy were killed than Americans and think we were winning. Then I came to know some families who'd lost a love one, and they didn't think we were winning. And then the rest of us knew that we weren't.

I cannot talk in class about the Vietnam War, the Moon Landing, and so many other things that are so important to my past, as it is just history to a room full of 21 year olds, who will typically think "What does this have to do with me?" And so most people will see that star in the window and not know what it means. But I know what it means, and it brought tears to my eyes. It means that a little girl is never going to see her daddy again.

How many more daddies is Bush going to kill? We have found the weapon of mass destruction; it is in the White House.

Heuristics

"A usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the investigation or solution of a problem." (from www.answers.com) We use these little shortcuts all the time to rapidly make judgments, solve problems, evaluate information, etc. In short, they are "rules of thumb." For example, how do you make inferences about the quality of a restaurant when other information such as experience and referrals are lacking? Sure, cleanliness, the number and type of patrons, the menu selection and prices, and any number of "extrinsic cues" may be used, but there are other less well-known heuristics.

For instance:
- the better a restaurant's ocean view, the poorer (and more expensive) the food will be.
- Any restaurant with a neon beer sign in the window will offer a disappointing dining experience.
- Never order newburg (as it is often old fish camoflaged in sauce).

There must be countless others, and maybe the few readers can add to the list.

"Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man's lifetime income

...which he then spends sending his son to college." [Bill Vaughan]

Everyone knows about how tuitions have increased at multiples of the inflation rates over the years, and many know about significant increases through the myriad of "hidden fees," but what about the cost of books? Even modest paperback texts are now hitting upwards of $150. That's just plain nuts, and a lot of us are not going to order these texts anymore. Yes, I am well aware of the economics, the short runs, the 9 turns per book, the dwindling margins, the costs of the bells and whistles, the competition and mergers, etc. But do we need a new edition for almost anything outside of the most rapidly changing disciplines every three years (or less!)? Do we need 800 page tomes? The focus groups say that instructors supposedly want all the supplements, four-color glossies, shrink-wrapped "extras," etc. I doubt it, as most are happy with a strong-content text and maybe a test bank, if that. The only ones who need an instructor's manual, for instance, are the ones that shouldn't be instructors. (Some people say "just give me a book and manual and I can teach anything." No you can't.) It might be different if the supplements were really good, but they rarely are even marginally useful. (What value is added by PowerPoints that are just rehashes of the text, for example?)

OK, so publishers can read the tea leaves and are trying desperately to respond. They try to offer cheaper alternatives, but they are failing, especially since "non-profit" bookstores are anything but by operating as profit centers. Students at this point are not ready for online editions, and instructors aren't ready to "construct" texts via a-la-carte chapters. So I guess the publishers will continue to offer the escalating and outrageously-priced texts as many professors hold their noses, with dwindling demand pressuring higher supply prices. For the increasingly price-sensitive markets they continue to feebly attempt to strip down texts as best they can but still allow the Atomic Dogs of the world to enter and take share.

It is clear that publishers need new business models to succeed. Perhaps they should work with Apple to create an "iBook."