Nothing wrong with it, especially from a technical point of view, but art is more than simply photo-realism, even in paintings that make use of such a technique. There still needs to be considerations of light, space, and all the other parts of composition. The fact is that "photo"-realism was done quite well from an…

my philosophy is if you want them to look photo realistic take a fucking photo - otherwise all you are showing me is how good a draftsperson you are.

HA. Oh God, yes, this is so true. I went to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and it was well known that the Fine Arts majors hated pretty much the rest of the school (except maybe for the Sculpture majors) because we were wannabe commercial sellouts.

It takes a long time to get the shading right on the upper lip.

I honestly don't understand what you're saying. A charming person will behave in such a way as to set the person they're interacting with at their ease. That means reading and responding to their personal comfort level. So the idea that comfort levels differ doesn't really make sense as a reason to say that smarm…

I get what you're saying, but for many people charm is also a social tool that can be switched on and off.

Dancercize: check.

When people work for free they are lowering the price of labour. That affects all workers, not just those willing to work for free. And remember, only the fairly privileged can work for free in the first place.

So very true. After being a single mom for a while, I go married to a different man that was going to "protect me" and "provide financial security" for me and my son which I was convinced at the time I could not do on my own. When he (the man I married) turned out to be a violent abusive and drug addicted sociopath,…

It should be noted that most single moms don't start out that way. Part of the reason women who are in a relationship still feel more secure when they are the breadwinner is because there is a real possibility at any time they could become a single mom.

The year I graduated high school (five years ago) my school made it on to one of the rankings for best schools in the nation for the first time. Of course the students and teachers were pleased, but perhaps we were more pleased that we ranked better then our rival school the next town over! Perhaps, it was juvenile…

It's important because it further segregates the rich and the poor in our country. The rich move to places with "good" school systems, which make the school systems better, which makes more rich people show up. Housing prices in those districts skyrocket, and the poor people end up moving out.

I like the Jay Mathews ranking system. First of all, it is transparent and easy to understand. It's not based on subjective criteria, and its assumptions are clear. It is based on the idea that challenging kids with rigorous coursework, even if they struggle, is preferable to allowing them to coast along in easier…

(Don't know why this image is so tiny. See link for image and the article I pulled it from.)

Totally. I went to private school, but had public school friends who were good students but not that top say 1%...it seemed as if they had a handful of kids that they always made sure had all of the info to prepare for the Ivies, etc, and everyone else was just guided towards local schools.

In the England and Wales, all schools are ranked by a body called OFSTED. This includes primary and secondary schools. You have to be a goddamned mercenary or be prepared to pay big bucks to move into an area with schools that have Outstanding OFSTED. When we moved cities at near the end of the school year, I bypassed…

Does anyone actually care about this other than schools? (I recognize that schools caring leads to schools changing policy which people care about, but I'm setting that aside for a moment.) Unless you are extremely wealthy or live in an area with several good schools, it seems like this would be totally irrelevant. …

The SATs are pretty open about the flaws in their system and tell colleges and universities straight up that those scores in of themselves do not demonstrate the full range of a student's strengths and weaknesses.

I saw an unpaid internship the other day that required previous intern experience, I was like.....WTF.....

What is going on with this head? It looks like...nothing. Or am I looking at this wrong?