I was up in Vermont way back in February or March hanging out with Josh, cookin’, snowboardin’, drinkin’ and talkin’, and the third night we got into a pretty heated game of Scrabble. We each got some really shitty letter picks early on, (I had 4 O’s, 2 A’s and a Y at one point) so the game was slow-goin’. To make a long story short, I had put ‘gild’ down (like, to cover in gold, not guild, for which Josh yelled at me) and one space above that, Josh had put ‘perm’ (like the indefinable thing women get done to their hair).
During one particularly slow patch when Josh was looking for a way to ditch his abundance of vowels, he asked me, “you’ve heard of perm-a-gild, right”? I was drunk enough that I could not stop laughing. After the game ended, I began to actually think about the concept of Permagild. It struck me as the perfect name for a business.
Picture the following scenarios (and pretend you live in a trailer and wear a mumu (moo-moo?) all day, you redneck loser): your child outgrows his first pair of shoes and you want to remember him as being that small forever. Your wife gives you a rose for valentines day and you never want it to wilt. Your lap-dog dies and you desperately need a paper weight. Your pet fish died so you’d like a keychain made out of him. Answer? PERMAGILD. COVER SHIT THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU IN GOLD. FOREVER.
I was dead serious about starting up this business model. Josh was clearly less interested in the business side of it and more interested in questioning how this would actually work. If you covered a dead creature in gold, would the inside rot? What would happen then if you dropped it and it broke open? Or since no air could get in, would it be perfectly embalmed inside? How much would a gold-covered-great-dane weigh? How could our target demographic (redneck losers) afford to have their shit covered in gold? Could you PERMAGILD liquids?
We pondered out loud about these and other questions for a long time. I drifted back toward the business model, suggesting that we also start up a scrap-gold-buying business on the side to stock the liquid gold buckets we would need to dip all this shit in. Josh said that was dumb. I said he was dumb. Then we went to bed where we talked like little girls until 3 in the morning.
Would anyone actually buy stuff if I dropped out of school and started this business? I guess with gold at a record high right now, this may not be feasible.
For those of you wishing to surprise your friends on the wonderful world of skype here’s a complete list of secret emoticons. To use the emoticons just type the word, including parenthesis, into the text box and hit enter. For example, to get the mooning icon to appear type ‘(mooning)’. (Sources Here and Here.)
(mooning)
Mooning emoticon, perfect…
(finger)
Middle finger emoticon, a very rude emoticon to express yourself.
(swear)
Swearing smiley, his words are just too rude to show!
(rock)
Rocking smiley, making a hand gesture and enjoying his music.
(smoking)
Smoking emoticon, this hidden smiley is one bad dude!
(drunk)
Drunk emoticon, this Skype smiley’s had a bit too much to drink
(poolparty)
Pool party emoticon, this guy just can’t wait to jump in!
(toivo)
A guy and his dog, not sure what this emoticon is about, but Toivo was a Skype engineer.
(bandit)
Masked bandit emoticon, quite unique. Good for when some stealth is required.
(headbang)
Angry smiley banging his head against a wall, we’ve all felt this way sometime.
(fubar)
FUBAR emoticon, for times when things just won’t work.
(tmi)
Too Much Information (TMI) emoticon, good for when you’ve heard more than enough!
(bug)
Bug emoticon, a black
(heidy)
Squirrel emoticon, a cute little critter and his nut. Heidi is a Skype staff member.
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I had to do a double take after reading this Campus Grotto post. It lists the top 100 most expensive colleges in the U.S., and on the top 10 is my Alma Mater. I have to say I love my school and the experiences and education it gave me. I honestly believe that the liberal arts education is the best college experience. But this is a warning that if these institutions don’t wise up, then the public eventually will, or worse, the expense will create and promote an even greater divide and misunderstanding between the rich and poor. They’re also hurting their graduates. Over 2/3rds of students graduating with a Bachelor’s degree are in $20,000 or more in debt. The debt is so large that the Wall Street Journal stated that student loans are making a new form of indentured servitude.
Before the Recession
Being at the school, I heard every argument for the high cost of tuition, especially since I had the privilege of leading the student government. To justify their expenses, they say that the high tuition is there to maintain facilities and faculty, and thus attract students. The life and blood of these institutions are tuitions and donations. These are all very real concerns, and to be fair most of the ‘rich kids’ paying full tuition at these schools are also in part paying for the financial aid of their peers. President Leo Higdon’s op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer describes all of these points in more detail.
Mind you this op-ed was written before the great recession, but the more one reads it, the more out of touch with reality it seems. He’s saying that only 20% of the tuition is going to financial aid and “The remainder of our budget covers academic and student life – all of the study-abroad programs, funded internships, athletics, more than 100 student clubs and activities, interdisciplinary centers and more, which we offer to enhance our students’ residential and intellectual experience.”
Wake Up!
Wonderful! Sign me up! Wait? What’s that you say? $50,000 a year? Half Tuition $25,000+? What’s that you say? I can go to a public school for 7,000$ a year? Or to a University in Germany for 70 euros a semester (albeit heavily subsidized).
According to the New York Times, “college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.” Was the education these facilities offering that bad before? Did we really need to dump that much money into the schools?
I’ll be the first to admit that the opportunities given to me from the school were amazing and enriching, but $50,000+ a year is absurd. Would we all want every opportunity, program, and experience that can be offered? Of course, but at some point it becomes unrealistic and counter-productive. Many of these schools pride themselves on their diversity, but can one really preach about diversity when charging this price?
In addition (maybe this has changed after two years), there seemed to be no inclination of changing this trend. Everyone hung their heads when seeing the new tuition every year, but didn’t talk about it, or called it a necessary evil. Yes, we shouldn’t raise it again, but we all want those amazing new programs, facilities, etc…
By the time a person graduates from one of these institutions (if they take full room and board and without financial aid) they (or most likely their families) will be paying over $200,000. Even if you get half tuition you’ll be paying an absurd amount of money, and most students are in debt.
This price handcuffs recent graduates’ opportunities after they graduate; keeps many students away from these amazing institutions because they simply can’t afford it, or find a cheaper solution; and to make matters worse, unfortunately it is becoming harder to sell a liberal arts degree.
There is no easy answer to this problem, but it is a big problem, and there needs to be a serious look and reform of the higher education system. In an increasingly global and complicated world, a liberal arts education is extremely valuable. To let these great institutions scuttle themselves for a lack of a solution is not an option I want to see.
If you are an alumni, student, teacher, or worker at any of these institutions, please start a serious conversation and get the ball rolling. If anyone can solve this problem, it would be a person with a liberal arts education.
It’s time to face reality. There needs to be some kind of action.
Ever heard the song “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” and wonder where the hell all the chestnut trees in America are? Well, it’s actually quite a tragic tale.
Beginnings
The American Chestnut used to extremely abundant in North America. So much so, that it is said that one in every four hardwood trees in its range was an American Chestnut. These trees were especially good since they grew quickly and the quality of wood they produced was unparalleled. The wood was strong yet easy to cut, grew quickly, not full of knots, resistant to decay because of large amounts of tannin, and in addition, it also stored a vast amount of CO2 which helped the eco-system greatly. As a bonus, you could also eat the chestnuts, which are still a staple in Europe around Christmas time. These nuts were also eaten by many of the local game before winter. It was almost the perfect tree.
As early as 1930, scientists puzzled over how to stop the spread of the disease, but to almost no avail. Luckily, in a few remote places, patches of trees survived where the fungus didn’t. Several sprouts in more effected areas still exist as well. These grow just large enough to lay seeds and then almost immediately succumb to the blight.
Recent technological advances have made the fight to preserve and reintroduce the American Chestnut seem more realistic. Scientists are working on creating a resistant cross-breed of the tree and have had some success. The new trees seem to be resistant to the fungus and retain 94 percent of the original American Chestnut genes. The question now becomes whether or not the tree will be able to survive and compete with local trees. These trees were produced by traditional breeding methods, but there is also an effort to genetically engineering a resistant tree in Syracuse New York. Several scientists have expressed qualms with this approach. Within a few years though, we’ll see if this new strain of the tree is able to survive and if it does it will mean the return of one of America’s great environmental treasures.
What do you think? Should Scientists genetically engineer a new tree to create a resistant strain?
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