Gem

I have the self-control of a rock.

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37.1C is when I die.

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Relevant:

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I’ve known for quite a while that the main reason my book backlog is growing (other than “I keep buying books”) is the same device I draw my cartoons on.

The iPad’s always ready to offer me a quick distracting endorphin hit: check my feeds! watch a BSG video! play one more of the billion Wordle clones out there!

It’s especially bad when I’m reading an e-book on it, what with notifications popping up — few of them worthy of my attention, but all of them stealing it.

Still, I have a few in my queue that I’m really excited about. I just finished Mick Napier’s Improvise. Scene from the inside out, and started Tom Blank’s The Principles of Comedy Improv. Next up in fiction is Lake of Souls, a collection of Ann Leckie’s short stories, and then Samantha Harvey’s Orbital (which I think will be my first time reading a Booker Prize-winner — don’t judge me).

The evidence from proprietary MyinTuition data is consistent with that obtained from net price calculators for the category of highly endowed private colleges. This correspondence suggests that data gathered from net price calculators is reasonably reliable as well. Collectively, these data indicate that the perception of rising college costs in the last five to ten years is not accurate.

But that does not mean that college is broadly affordable. Whether or not a student whose family earns $300,000 or more per year can afford a $90,000 price tag is an open question. But at many institutions, families earning $40,000 are still expected to come up with $15,000 to $20,000 per year. It seems clear that amount is not affordable. Only the highly endowed institutions charge a price that these low-income families can afford through, say, limited student employment. A large tax on the endowments of these institutions may imperil their ability to offer that level of financial aid.

It is not difficult to understand why there is such uncertainty regarding college pricing. The system is sufficiently complicated that it is difficult for a student or family to know how much it will cost them to attend college. Politicians and those in the media similarly face information constraints in setting policy and reporting on college costs. We need to improve the transparency of college pricing if we are to increase awareness of its true cost. Transparency and affordability in our college pricing system are critical issues. The emphasis on rising sticker prices should not be our focus.

‘People are going to die’ if cuts continues, mental health workers warn