Partially Obscured Something Or Other

Selections from the pages of Spectagoria Magazine’s October 1985 “Vaporgoth” issue, which brought “old magick to the new wave,” according to editor Sera Clairmont. Bringing otherworldly darkness to the mortal world of fashion had become the signature of Spectagoria, but Clairmont had been in hiding for years and recent Spectagoria issues had been highly critical of the Reagan 80s’ excessive materialism, leaving critics wondering if Clairmont was even interested enough anymore in the superficialities of the fashion world to continue subverting them. It was a welcome surprise, then, for readers to discover that rumors of supposed Clairmont sightings in the underground nightlife of New York City were apparently true, and she had been gathering inspiration for a new vision of her occult horror style that kept up with - if not outpaced - the bright colors and neon lights of mainstream ‘80s fashion. As usual, the Vaporgoth issue perplexed some readers with elaborate set pieces and makeup effects that seemed to defy belief; but longtime fans only saw more evidence that Clairmont’s supposed prowess in dark cosmic magic was again hiding in plain sight…

To be continued.

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NOTE: Spectagoria is an ongoing work of fiction created by me. This alternate reality horror story is part of my NightmAIres narrative art series (visit that link for a lot more). NightmAIres are windows into other worlds and interconnected alternate histories, conceived/written by me and visualized with synthography and Photoshop.

kids in high school: holy shit free college?!

biden: oh no two years of pre-school and then two years of college*

However.

There is decades worth of evidence that pre-K education is one of the strongest ways of giving kids enduring advantages in K-12 education. A lot of the data comes specifically out of Oklahoma, which does have voluntary universal pre-K (which makes it an excellent case study) and the research shows gains across all racial and socio-economic boundaries. That paper is from 2005. Researchers revisited the kids later to see how persistent these gains were, or if they were drowned out by all the other stuff.

Turns out, the kids who were in pre-K continued to have academic success through middle school (they hadn’t tracked through high school). And just for fun, they also did some projected adult earnings for kids who went through pre-K, as fun benefit-cost analysis of the whole thing. And it looks like the benefits skew disproportionately in favor of the more disadvantaged students.