"There are two reasons for everything - a good reason, and the real one." Winston Churchill

"Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said 'How well he spoke' - but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said 'Let us march'?" Adlai Stevenson

Image featured, Madison's Olbrich Botanical Gardens. Thanks to WisDoc via The Isthmus Pool at Flickr.

Elizabeth Jensen writes about the new half-hour PBS series "AIR: America's Investigative Reports" via NYT here. Bravo to the WNET team! The twelve week run begins tonight - check your local listings and, as Gary Owens likes to say "Don't miss it if you can!"

Craig Newmark is funding a new news venture; Jeff Jarvis serves as editor-in-chief of the startup. Still in stealth, they are hiring for their enterprise - the working title is Daylife. More info here and here. (Thanks to Cory and the LR gang for the pointer)

Most of the eighteen year-olds entering the class of 2010 this fall were born in 1988

The annual Beloit College Mindset List is out. The list, prepared to help faculty to better understand freshman perspective, is always a fun read. Created by Tom McBride and Ron Nief the list deserves your attention.

According to McBride, this year’s entering students form “a generation that has always been ‘connected’ and is used to things happening in ‘real time,’ like live satellite coverage of revolutions and wars, instant messaging and movies on demand. They expect solutions for every problem, from baldness to diseased organs. To the chagrin of teachers and parents, they’ve developed their own generational means of communication.”

"For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead."

Some selected points of the 75 points on the list...

9. A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents'

10. Thanks to pervasive headphones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.

11. A coffee has always taken longer to make than a milkshake.

20. Text messaging is their email.

32. Reality shows have always been on television.

Check out the entire list, and lists from previous years, here. Kudos to Tom and Ron - good job!