4-7-13

     

Tucson Weather Today


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I recently encountered the acronym MOOC and being unfamiliar with the term, I looked it up.

According to Wikipedia: A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is an online course aiming at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors, and TAs. MOOCs are a recent development in distance education and often use open educational resources. Typically they do not offer academic credit or charge tuition fees. Only about 10% of the tens of thousands of students who may sign up complete the course.

Interesting.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Russell Ira Crowe
(born 7 April 1964)

 

New Zealand-born Australian actor, film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as the Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator. Crowe appeared as the tobacco firm whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in the 1999 film The Insider and In 2001,his portrayal of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash in the biopic A Beautiful Mind brought him numerous awards. Crowe's other films include L.A. Confidential (1997), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) Cinderella Man (2005), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), American Gangster (2007), Body of Lies (2008) and Robin Hood (2010).

Jackie Chan
(born April 7, 1954)

 

 

Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer, and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. He is one of the few actors to have performed all of his film stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 150 films.

James Garner
(born April 7, 1928)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American film and television actor. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades. These included his roles as Bret Maverick, in the popular 1950s western-comedy series, Maverick; Jim Rockford, in the popular 1970s detective drama, The Rockford Files; and the father of Katey Sagal's character on 8 Simple Rules following the death of John Ritter. He has starred in more than fifty movies, including The Great Escape (1963), Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964), Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria (1982), Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and The Notebook (2004).

Billie Holiday
(April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959

 

American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day", Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

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Poetry has become so docile, so domesticated, it’s like a spayed housecat lolling in a warm patch of sun.
--David Yezzi