Tag Archives: Universal

Fastest Things on Wings – Terry Masear

by Myrna Posted on July 18, 2018

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Fastest Things on Wings
Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood
Terry Masear

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: June 16, 2015

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC


A heartwarming memoir by “one of California’s hardest-working hummingbird rehabilitators . . .  will leave the average bird lover agog” ( The Washington Post ).   Before he collided with a limousine, Gabriel, an Anna’s hummingbird with a head and throat cloaked in iridescent magenta feathers, could spiral 130 feet in the air, dive 60 miles per hour in a courtship display, hover, and fly backward. When he arrived in rehab caked in road grime, he was so badly injured that he could barely perch. But Terry Masear, one of the busiest hummingbird rehabbers in the country, was determined to save this damaged bird, who seemed oddly familiar.    During the four months that Masear worked with Gabriel, she took in 160 other hummingbirds, from a miniature nestling rescued by a bulldog to a fledgling trapped inside a skydiving wind tunnel at Universal CityWalk, and Pepper, a female Anna’s injured on a film set.   During their time together, Pepper and Gabriel formed a special bond and, together, with Terry’s help, learned to fly again. Woven throughout Gabriel and Pepper’s stories are those of other colorful birds in a narrative filled with the science and magic surrounding these fascinating creatures. “This is a book about birds that is actually a book about love, and Masear does us a favor by risking heartbreak every day” ( Los Angeles Times ).   “I cannot believe what a gripping read this is.” —Robin Young, host of NPR’s Here and Now   “A book that will change forever the way you look at these little birds.” — Los Angeles Times   “This is a charming and lively summertime read, something for the patio or balcony, glass of iced tea at hand, a hummingbird or two zipping around the azaleas.” — Dallas Morning News   “I was riveted, charmed, delighted, devastated, profoundly moved, and taken to a magical place few people ever get to glimpse.” —Stacey O’Brien, author of  Wesley the Owl  

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Fastest Things on Wings – Terry Masear

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Let’s Experiment With Universal Preschool

by GabrielWithrow Posted on September 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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I’m a considerable fan of early childhood education. Megan McArdle says she’s tentatively in favor too, but “I am opposed to blind boosterism of such programs, the kind that confidently predicts marvelous results from thin empirical evidence, and briskly proceeds to demand huge sums be spent accordingly.” I’m tempted to say this is a straw-man argument, but maybe not. There are a lot of cheerleaders out there. In any case, she offers a useful corrective for anyone who thinks the evidence in favor of universal preschool is open and shut. So what should we do?

I would like to see us experiment more with these programs. But the key word here is “experiment.” Which is to say we should: Try more programs….Take the programs that seem to work and scale them up to a larger group….Rinse and repeat until we figure out what, if anything, works. That would be the sane, sensible way to go about constructing policy in an important area.

But politically, how insane! Voters don’t want to hear about a decade or two of carefully planned research to help shape solid policy choices; they want to hear promises of immediate solutions to an immediate problem. That’s not a great way to make policy. But it’s a pretty good way to get elected.

I don’t think these are mutually exclusive options. The 1988 Family Support Act might be a useful model here. Following a series of welfare reform experiments in the early 80s, it authorized additional research on a larger scale. Why not do the same thing with preschool? Offer substantial funding to states willing to participate in rigorous testing of preschool programs, with the goal of producing useful results in six or seven years.

This could be a substantial program, not just a few small-scale tests, which would certainly count toward any campaign promises made about universal pre-K. And the money would go to the states most eager to participate, which would be politically savvy. At the same time, it wouldn’t cost as much as a nationwide program, which would make it easier to get through Congress. And finally, the promise of larger-scale testing would satisfy the demands of social scientists, who rightly point out that small-scale experiments don’t always scale successfully into bigger programs.

I’m tempted to say that if Democrats and Republicans could agree on this approach for testing welfare reform in 1988, they should be able to agree on doing the same thing for preschool in 2017. That’s not necessarily true, of course. Still, it seems like this kind of program would, at a minimum, be more likely to pass a divided Congress than full-blown universal pre-K legislation. Why not give it a try?

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Let’s Experiment With Universal Preschool

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ReVIVE Series Solar ReStore External Battery Pack with Universal USB Charging Port for Portable E-readers , MP3 Players , Smartphones & More USB Powered Devices

by Myrna Posted on August 21, 2013

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