Current Events Activity 2.2 - Oh, Canada

1.
Previously, the Bastrop Fires were thought to have been caused by a paper shredder, apparently one that turns the paper into fire, however now the authorities believe that the fire may have been started by a burn pile, which sounds just as obvious as one would expect it to sound. The Bastrop Country officials are letting people return to their homes, however for the people that live in the 64 homes and 4,600 acres of land that were ravaged by the fires, there may not be much of a home to return to. The people seemed very genuinely sad as I read the article, and deeply hurt by the loss of most of their possessions is a deeply troubling aspect of life that I'm sure many of them are now struggling to deal with, I felt terrible, but I also felt like these were the Okies in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and that they had silly prairie accents.

2.
The school districts in the Austin area are too poor to buy books, a quintessential Texas problem to have, and so a lot of schools have switched over to digital textbooks in a move one could only describe as a decade too late. It's really silly that paper textbooks have been around for this long in the first place, or that school districts around the country haven't gone even further in digitizing the school process to save money. Just make all the teachers computer programs, make class only happen online, and make all the work digital. Remove every possible third party. Make school sporting events video games, have nobody ever personally interact with anyone else ever in their time as a human ever again. In theory, you don't even need students, just give money straight from the school district to McGraw-Hill.  The Robertson Family doesn't understand how technology works so they bought a textbook for $75, a great idea for other families who can't learn. Melissa Prepster, a woman who has had to do too much boring paperwork in her 23-year teaching career is super hype for the new tech, because it probably makes her job considerably easier. Eanes district is having an easier time giving tablets to all of their kids, than Leander, because there are fewer students that are in the Eanes District and they have been working at this since 2011. McCallum should no longer exist. Technology is too advanced. Digitize everything. Assimilate everyone.

3.
Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party has a majority in the new Canadian Parliament and Trudeau is set to become the next Prime Minister of Canada, replacing his Conservative party strongman and gopher lookalike Stephen Harper after a 9 year, three term ministry. Trudeau is from the Liberal Party, and his policies are very similar to President Obama's. Where there may have been tension between the US and Canada under the Harper Administration, the new government is likely to pursue changes to make it's economy less dependent on Fossil Fuel exports and be less involved in military action around the world.

4.
Alan Guckian, a teacher at Eastside who is not my father is up for the 2016 Music Educator Award, which is for being an educator of music, and a very good one at that. He was one of 4,500 people nominated for the award, and now there are considerably less people in the race; Guckian is one of 25 semifinalists left in the drawing, and if he is the last man standing, his kids get a pizza party. Pretty cool.

5.
Shaka Smart, good basketball coach of the Longhorn Basketball team, is changing the mindset of his player going in to the upcoming season by doing crazy endurance drills like getting his players to swim to try and mold them into a more cohesive and endurance team to play the time of run and gun style he is used to from his old school, VCU.