Tidbits on September 7, 2006
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

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For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   
 

Click here to search this Website if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

President Bush Press Conference --- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1921276117304287501 

Pipe Dream has been voted one of the best 3D animation projects ever (by 3D World magazine) ---
Click Here

Free Music Videos --- http://www6.islandrecords.com/site/home.php

100 Years of Pictures (turn up your speakers) --- http://usaattacked.com/100_years_of_pictures.htm

Pixsy's updates on free news videos --- http://www.pixsy.com/search.aspx?cat=12

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

New from Jessie
In the Garden --- http://www.jessiesweb.com/inthegarden.htm
If the sound does not commence after 30 seconds, scroll to the bottom of the page and turn it on

Marni Nixon: Hollywood's Invisible Voice --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5751867
Jensen Comment
I once listened to a marvelous concert by Marni Nixon at the Magestic in San Antonio. She has an amazing voice and voice control.

Sarah Vaughan's Unlikeliest Jazz Classic --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5732357

Three Decades of Pop Music, Colliding at Once --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5732930

Blog Music Net --- http://blogmusik.net/

AM Radio Gets a Modern Sheen --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5713293

Photographs and Art

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Planet eBook --- http://www.planetebook.com/

The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form --- http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php

A Photographer'S Day Out by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) --- Click Here

The Lesson of the Master by Henry James (1843-1916) --- Click Here

Lady Susan by Jane Austen (1775-1817) --- Click Here

History News Network --- http://hnn.us/

The Heritage of the Great War --- http://www.greatwar.nl/

Don Mabry's Historical Text Archive --- http://historicaltextarchive.com/

Motivational Quotations --- http://www.quotemeonit.com/handey.html

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
Albert Einstein

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.
Niels Bohr (1885-1962) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr

The problem with history is that it gets old in a hurry, falling from our forward vision into the peripheral, then tumbling to the rearview mirror with astonishing swiftness until it fades into a tiny speck fighting for space on the limited chip of memory.
Ron Sirak --- http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/features/tigerwoods/index
Jensen Comment
Paraphrasing a lyric by Buddy Holly, "Happiness is history in my rear view mirror." The literal Buddy Holly quotation is "Happiness is Lubbock in my rear view mirror."

Finally, I grew bored of looking through proof that I was an airhead 30 years ago. I am so glad I grew out of that stage of my life. I moved the books to the pile of things we are just not sure about yet, and I joined my husband on the couch. I did not want to miss a minute of "Big Brother All-Stars".
Felice Prager when sorting old books out of her library, "Dispensing With the Indispensable," The Irascible Professor, August 31, 2006 --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-08-31-06.htm

Talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh will reportedly join Katie Couric this week on the CBS Evening News to help launch the former "Today" show host in her new duties as anchor at the Tiffany network.
"Report: Katie Couric scores Rush Limbaugh:  Radio giant to appear on CBS Evening News to help launch new anchor," WorldNetDaily, September 5, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51815

In an article for The Guardian, feminist and activist Germaine Greer announces: "The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin." Irwin was lauded as a fine conservationist because he deplored the slaughter of crocodiles and had purchased large tracts of land to keep their habitat alive. He was the face of a quarantine campaign, designed to keep foreign pests out of Australia. But Greer said he was "an entertainer, a 21st-century version of a lion tamer, with crocodiles instead of lions".
Caroline Overington, "Greer sticks in a barb of her own," The Australian, September 6, 2006 --- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20361926-601,00.html

The first Muslim to be crowned Miss England has warned that stereotyping members of her community is leading some towards extremism . . . Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway.
Daily Mail, August 31, 2006 --- Click Here

Pundits have overwhelming supported the notion that illiteracy, poverty and deprivation are the prime reasons behind the surge in Islamic radicalization and vioelnce in recent years. But a careful analysis of the socio-economic factors of the Muslim world does not support such a hypothesis at all. But in stead, better education and economic prosperity appear to be the primers, not the remedy, of Islamic radicalization and violence.
Alamgir Hussain, "Reasons behind Islamic Terrorism: Illiteracy, Poverty and Deprivation?" Islam Watch, September 1, 2006 --- http://www.islam-watch.org/AlamgirHussain/CausesofTerrorism.htm

If you live long enough, you'll see every victory turn into a defeat.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir

It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
Yogi Berra

A Harvard Historian Writes a Scenario for the Years Up to Year 2031
Did the U.S. overreact to Sept. 11? Niall Ferguson, one of the world's leading historians, speculates on how future generations will judge the war on terrorism--and on what it will take for America to win it.

One of Professor Ferguson's conclusions is that the U.S. wasted its pre-emptive strike against terrorism on Iraq when it should've saved it up for a more reasoned resistance against a power grab by Iran. Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in effect will, according to Professor Ferguson, allow  fundamentalist Islamic clerics in Iran to take Persian control of the entire Middle East. In other words the U.S. overreacted to the 9/11 terror strike without assessing its impact in solidifying the Islamic extremist power base in the Middle East.

I don't agree entirely with this criticism of the Coalition strikes after 9/11. Without taking out Saddam, a power-hungry and U.S.-hating Saddam would've obtained weapons of serious mass destruction. Without taking on bin Laden in Afghanistan and suppressing the power base of Al-Qaida (or Al Qaeda), bin Laden's Arabic terror power base would've mushroomed like wildfire in Arabic nations. While building an unrestrained and energized terror network, Al-Qaida after 9/11would've captured control of Saudi Arabia and the other Arab countries that, in turn, would've held Iran in check --- but at the price of even worse prospects for terrorism in the U.S. and Europe.

With no immediate Coalition military strikes after 9/11, fundamentalist takeovers of the Middle East would've been much quicker and given power to fundamentalist Arabic rather than fundamentalist Persian (Iranian) factions. And the explosive power centers would've been bin Laden and Saddam, which I think is what some Arab leaders greatly feared after 9/11 in nations like Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordon, Kuwait, Qatar and other Arab nations currently fighting Al-Qaida. While building up the fear of Iran, Professor Ferguson makes no mention of the dangers of unrestrained Saddam and bin Laden fanatics.

Professor Ferguson marginalizes Saddam as a madman in Iraq. Professor Ferguson ignores the scenario of what would've happened if Saddam remained in power and eventually faced off against bin Laden after 9/11. Saddam may have teamed up with bin Laden to capture control of the Middle East and Africa. On the other hand, it's more likely that Saddam would've  declared war on bin Laden, and who knows what might've happened at that juncture? Saddam certainly had more oil and other resources to buy/build weapons of mass destruction. But an almost non-religious Saddam was not nearly as popular in the world of Islam as the devout prophet Osama bin Laden. Osama probably would've lost some key battles while winning the war against Saddam if the U.S. and other Coalition forces had not intervened to take out Saddam. But the Middle East may have been covered in nuclear fallout in a Saddam-Osama bin Laden war just like it was covered with smoke from Kuwait's oil wells set on fire when a vindictive Saddam was forced to retreat in the Gulf War.

I think people critical of our going to war in Iraq play down the real danger of the revenge-crazed and power-hungry Saddam following his defeat in the Gulf War. They rant and rave about mistakes we made after moving into Iraq, but they don't mention how unsafe we were with Saddam rebuilding his war machine, e.g., see the typical Bush-bashing rants and raves in "The World After 9/11:  Amy Davidson talks to Seymour M. Hersh, Jon Lee Anderson, and George Packer about Iraq, Afghanistan, the war on terror, and whether America is stronger now," The New Yorker, September 11, 2006 --- http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/060911on_onlineonly02
PS:  Seymour Hersh was recently singled out by bin Laden as a Western friend of  Al-Qaida. See below!

Another scenario that Professor Ferguson avoids is the dangerous reluctance of Israel to easily give up with millions of Jews fleeing from the Middle East in surrender of the Jewish Holy Land to Iran. I'm more inclined to predict greater use of weapons of mass destruction by all warring sides that will leave an impatient Iran very saddened by trying to take Israel out with force.

Professor Ferguson also marginalizes and/or exaggerates some key players that will confront Islamic terrorists between the Years 2006 and 2031. Perhaps he's correct in marginalizing European nations that already show signs, in terminal economic sickness, of caving in to inside and outside forces, but I'm not so ready to believe that Islam will concede Europe to Russia as predicted by Professor Ferguson. The Red Bear proved to be the downfall of Napoleon and Hitler. Russia may well be the force that nukes Iran if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei points his bombs and terrorist cells toward Russia and Europe. Professor Ferguson predicts that Russia rather than Iran will control Europe with oil economics, but Europe has millions of Islamic loyalists that may bring an easily frightened Europe under Islamic control. Russia will most likely not unleash its nuclear and biological fury on the Middle East for the sake of Europe but it will most certainly do so for the sake of Mother Russia. Hence Iran will most likely not take on the Bear.

Professor Ferguson marginalizes China by predicting an economic meltdown in the Far East. China will nevertheless remain dominant in the Far East, but in a weakened economic condition China will not take over the world according to Professor Ferguson. This is a highly unlikely scenario in my judgment. I think China will become the dominant economic and military force of the world as the U.S. succumbs to hyperinflation, bloated entitlement programs, wasted trillions in futile efforts to become the world's police force, energy shortages, an unstoppable tide of millions upon millions of illegal border crossings, and loss of national identity that characterized the legal immigrant culture between 1776 and 2016 before the internal U.S. cultural wars commencing around Year 2016.

Professor Ferguson also marginalizes South America, a continent that may successfully resist the spread of Islam while sitting on the world's largest oil reserves, i.e., possibly more oil reserves and other resources than in all the Middle East. He also marginalizes the role of India as both a nuclear power resisting Islam and as an economic hurricane in global affairs. My own prediction is that China, India, and South America, particularly Brazil, will dominate the global economy to fill the vacuum left by an entitlement-deflated (with inflated dollars) and retreating (under the guise of protectionism) United States. See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

And what about the United States in 2031?
Professor Ferguson predicts that technological and economic miracles (i.e., reduced entitlement programs and energy technologies) will leave the U.S. alive as a non-global bottom feeder marginalized by the three global powers of Persia, Russia, and China. Where Israel, South America, Africa, India and Canada end up is uncertain in Professor Ferguson's scenario.  Presumably Persia will take over all of Africa and possibly India if India resists using its weapons of mass destruction. In this regard, the land of Gandhi is less dangerous than Israel in my viewpoint, although Professor Ferguson ignores any possibility of nuclear/biological winter.

Presumably both South and North America will become mere bit players as the three superpowers (Persia, Russia, and China) on the opposite side of the earth face each other off in Cold War amidst global warming. Israel may just give up, without war, in economic despair if Iran stops provoking Israel while the U.S. crashes as a superpower propping up Israel with guns and greenbacks. Personally I don't think Iran has that kind of patience and may well trigger World War III before Professor Ferguson's peaceful Cold War scenario can play itself out.

Ferguson's probably correct that the U.S. along with its dreams of world democracies will probably "fall to earth" under any reasonable scenario at this juncture. Contrary to what both Bush supporters and the Bush bashers argue, the U.S. fall to earth will happen irrespective of any action taken by the U.S. and its allies after 9/11. Islam was going to rise up against the "Great Satan" under any scenario commencing with 9/11..Remember that the U.S. had not yet invaded Iraq when bin Laden unleashed his 9/11 war of terror against the U.S.

The only question five years ago was whether the terrorism victory would eventually be celebrated by Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, or Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Professor Ferguson opts for Khamenei now that we've taken out Saddam and weakened bin Laden. I think it would've been bin Laden if we saved our pre-emptive strikes for Iran as recommended by Professor Ferguson.

Before we unleashed any military might on Iran in a delayed pre-emptive strike proposed by Professor Ferguson, Iran would've been marginalized by Saddam and/or bin Laden. Saddam most likely would've been taken out by bin Laden's terror cells in Iraq before Saddam got nuclear bombs. In the meantime, all of the Middle East would've succumbed to Al-Qaida terror as millions of Arabs and Persians pledged allegiance to Prophet bin Laden.

In any case democracy as we once experimented with it for a few hundred years in North America is doomed under any probable scenario, especially the scenario of Professor Ferguson where he predicts that worldwide future elections and freedoms will become  more of a "sham" than they are today.

"The Nation That Fell To Earth," by Niall Ferguson, Time Magazine Cover Story. September 11, 2006 --- Click Here

By the fall of 2003, just two years after the 9/11 attacks, doubts had begun to creep back in. The most striking manifestation of American miscalculation was the refusal of Iraqis to peacefully embrace the nascent democracy created for them by U.S. arms. Far from abating, violence in Iraq increased over time. Part of the problem was the insufficiency of U.S. boots on the ground. General Eric Shinseki turned out to have been right that "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would be needed to stabilize post-Saddam Iraq. Trying to do the job with around 135,000--roughly 1 American for every 210 Iraqis--exposed a part of the spectrum that the U.S. could not fully dominate: the Arab street. U.S. soldiers patrolling strife-torn cities could be killed or maimed by the simplest of improvised explosive devices. Here was a new and shocking symmetry in warfare.

By the fall of 2003, just two years after the 9/11 attacks, doubts had begun to creep back in. The most striking manifestation of American miscalculation was the refusal of Iraqis to peacefully embrace the nascent democracy created for them by U.S. arms. Far from abating, violence in Iraq increased over time. Part of the problem was the insufficiency of U.S. boots on the ground. General Eric Shinseki turned out to have been right that "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would be needed to stabilize post-Saddam Iraq. Trying to do the job with around 135,000--roughly 1 American for every 210 Iraqis--exposed a part of the spectrum that the U.S. could not fully dominate: the Arab street. U.S. soldiers patrolling strife-torn cities could be killed or maimed by the simplest of improvised explosive devices. Here was a new and shocking symmetry in warfare.

To make matters worse, the public appetite for the war in Iraq faded long before a real victory was achieved. Just 12 months after the original invasion--even before the U.S. death toll in Iraq passed the thousand mark--support for the war had dropped below 50%. True, new evidence came to light of the dictator's crimes against his own people. True, opinion polls suggested that Iraqis overwhelmingly preferred democracy to Saddam. But U.S. voters did not see these as sufficient grounds for risking American lives. The Bush Administration's contentions that Saddam had links to al-Qaeda and possessed weapons of mass destruction proved groundless.

Almost as big a miscalculation was the military's failure to understand the nature of the threat to Iraq's security. At first it seemed as if the U.S.-led coalition was facing an insurgency led by Saddam loyalists, with the support of foreign terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. But increasingly what was happening in Iraq was a sectarian war between the Sunni minority and the Shi'ite majority. The country that Americans had set out to democratize had, on closer inspection, voted to break apart. A spiral of tit-for-tat massacres in ethnically mixed Baghdad and the surrounding provinces ensured that the disintegration would happen in the bloodiest possible way. By the summer of 2006, despite the successful formation of a democratically elected government in Baghdad, Iraqis were dying at a rate of more than 100 a day.

. . .

Worse, by breaking up Iraq, the U.S. had unwittingly handed a belated victory in the earlier Iran-Iraq war to the fundamentalist regime in Tehran. No state stood to gain more from democracy in Iraq, since the country's Shi'ite majority felt close ties of kinship to Iran. And no state in the region was more explicitly committed to the destruction of America's ally Israel.

The decision of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [actually Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the real decision maker in Iran] to press ahead with Iran's secret nuclear-weapons program confronted the U.S. with an agonizing strategic dilemma. Iran made no secret of the fact that it was supplying Hizballah with the missiles that rained down on Israel in the summer of 2006. Iran was also hell-bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Yet the essentially unilateral action that had been used against Iraq in 2003 was no longer possible against Iran. A U.S. Administration that had once confidently bypassed the U.N. found it had no option but to turn to the U.N. Security Council in the hope that international pressure could disarm Hizballah and keep Iran from going nuclear. The colossus that once bestrode the globe seemed to be stuck in the Middle Eastern sands--and unable to prevent the seemingly inevitable confrontation between Iran and Israel.

III ENEMIES WITHIN

In the Bush Administration's final years, its reputation touched bottom. Many Americans complained that they had the wrong President. For a time, Bush's approval ratings sank below Richard Nixon's and Jimmy Carter's worst.

Yet history has been a kinder judge of Bush's presidency. Although many analysts had predicted that terrorists would strike again on U.S. soil within five years, there was no sequel to 9/11 on Bush's watch. It was just his bad luck that success in counterterrorism grabbed few headlines, since plots stifled at conception are nonevents in news terms. Moreover, the key point of his national-security strategy turned out to be correct. It was just that pre-emption had been used against Iraq when it should have been saved for Iran.

. . .

They included not just the continued activity of the Islamic terrorist network. In the turbulent years after 9/11, new powers arose to challenge American might. Iran--thanks to raw demography, the reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq and advances in its nuclear program--emerged as the dominant power in the Middle East. Despite the trauma of financial crisis and depression, China became the new hegemon of East Asia. And Russia used its oil riches and nuclear leverage to restore its dominance over Eastern Europe, rolling back the frontier of the European Union. Although all adopted the outward forms of democracy, none of those three powers had much interest in advancing individual liberty and the rule of law, without which elections are a sham. All three had an interest in weakening America.

With the rise of these rivals came one benefit: as time passed, the once hated Great Satan [the United States] was no longer everybody's favorite whipping boy. Since the U.S. presence in the Middle East had wound down after 2008, it was no longer obvious why Islamist terrorists would expend their energies attacking American cities. That was why, by the 30th anniversary of 9/11, many younger Americans looked back on that event as a strange aberration.

. . .

The adoption of fuel-cell engines by the U.S. automobile industry, combined with a new generation of ultrasafe nuclear power plants, effectively ended America's century-long addiction to oil. The application of nanotechnology to homeland security allowed 24/7 surveillance of Islamist suspects by minuscule drones and invisible implants.

And so the Great War of Democracy ended--not with the catastrophic bang that so many had feared but with the imperceptible hum of a technological revolution. "We tried to give the Muslim world a political upgrade," said U.S. President Jimmy McCain, son of the former Senator and a veteran of the Iraq war, on the 30th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. "I guess we failed. So instead we gave ourselves an economic upgrade. I guess we succeeded."

By 2031, Niall Ferguson may have retired as the Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford. His latest book, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, has just been published by Penguin Press.

Some argue that taking over Iraq (when the U.S. surrenders) will not be a piece of cake for Iran

"Hostage to Fortune," by Robert D. Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2006; Page A20 --- Click Here

No leader since Napoleon has roiled the Middle East as has George W. Bush. By invading Iraq, President Bush set history in motion. By doing so without a strategy for governing it afterwards, he did not plan for the worst, and so the worst has happened. Iraq has become the pivot for strengthening the radical forces that the invasion should have weakened. Yet to assume history follows a straight path is fatalism, not analysis.

A strengthened Shiite world was not an unintended consequence of the Iraq war. Toppling a Sunni dictator in predominantly Shiite Mesopotamia had to do that, whether the invasion resulted in stable democracy, benign dictatorship or chaos. People forget that moving history forward after 9/11 required shaking up the suffocating complacency of the Sunni Arab police states from where the terrorists originated.

Back then, Iran seemed to offer an opportunity for regional change. It was among the Muslim world's most sophisticated populations, a significant portion of which was pro-American, embarrassed by their own regime. In late 2001, when the seemingly reformist president, Mohammed Khatami, was in power, a gradual political shift in Tehran without military action seemed possible, particularly if somewhat stable, somewhat pro-American governments emerged on Iran's borders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But ideas, particularly bold ones, are hostage to the quality of their execution. There was indeed a political shift in Iran -- for the worse. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president of the Islamic Republic in June 2005, in the wake of the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the withdrawal of Syrian troops from that country, and historic elections that saw millions of Iraqis hold up the purple finger against tyranny. In the dynamic environment that Mr. Bush had unleashed, even a flawed occupation led to encouraging developments -- however superficial -- to which Iran's radicals reacted. Iran's advantages were these: Though Iraqis had voted, they had no governing authority worth the name; likewise, the Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon could not erase the fact of Lebanon's demographically ascendant and militarized Shiite community.

Statements by the Arab League and the governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia initially blaming the violence in Lebanon on Hezbollah, rather than on Israel, stood as evidence that a heightened fear of Shiism had indeed shaken these states out of their complacency. Arab support proved short-lived, though, because of Israel's dragged-out and bungled operation. But while Iran is strengthened, it is not dominant: The radical Islamic universalism that it once sought to represent has been narrowed to a sectarianism with no appeal beyond its own Shiite community. Iran plays the spoiler in Iraq. But Iranian politics will become gnarled by its interaction with a more pluralistic, ethnically Arab, Shiite southern Iraq. We are tearing our hair out over Iraq. The Iranians will be too, if there is a full-scale civil war.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Iran has other troubles. Over 40% of Iranians are below the poverty line. Whereas Hitler's Germany in 1938 was the was the second largest economy in the world (with the world's largest military), Iran's GDP, at less than $200 billion for the entire country, is less than half the current annual budget of the Pentagon. Furthermore, Iran's national budget is almost entirely dependent upon unrefined oil exports. Even if Iran wins the prize of Iraq's oil fields, Israel could knock out the Iran-Iraq economies in a New York minute with a modicum of military effort compared to wiping out the underground Hezbollah in Lebanon. Winning the war-torn Iraq is not exactly a prize  for Persia in the short run, and in the long run Arabia will be no pushover for Persia. We always have a tendency to assume that the World of Islam will coalesce into one voice. There will instead many wrangling voices and much fighting between old tribes. Our worry is a looming huge civil war in the Middle East rather than a single Persia superpower in spite of Niall Ferguson's Persian superpower predictions summarized above. Unfortunately the U.S. can no longer afford in money or in spirit to stand between the secular factions of the entire Middle East, and Europe's will to intervene is almost zero, especially with Prime Minister Blair, our only true ally, in retreat.

We Will See the Banner of Islam ‘Flying Over Big Ben and the British Parliament’ . . . What is today called 'Londonistan' is in fact 'Heretistan,' that is, dar al-kufr [the abode of heresy]. I think that loyal Muslims in Britain will one day turn it, with Allah's help, into 'Islamistan,' that is dar al-islam [the abode of Islam], as the first Muslims did in Ethiopia and in Indonesia. Then the great Islamic dream will be fulfilled - that we will see the banner [proclaiming] 'There is no God but Allah' flying over Big Ben and the British Parliament, with Allah's help."
Sheikh Omar bin Bakri --- Click Here

The entire thing [9/11] was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism - the definition of which has not yet been determined.
Dr. Salah Sultan, President of the American Center for Islamic Research (ACIR), a non-profit organization registered in Ohio and located in Columbus --- http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP116806
Some U.S. professors, many of whom are merely anti-establishment rather than pto-Muslim, under the banner of academic freedom are now trying to convince college students that the President of the United States conspired to kill over 3,000 Americans in a planned 9/11 attack on New York City. It is indeed a shame if these fairy tale teachings fall within a curriculum accepted by the faculties of those colleges.

"All Plots Move Deathward," by Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, September 6, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/09/06/mclemee

Last month, Thomas M. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton published Without Precedent, an account of their time as co-chairs (Republican and Democratic, respectively) of the 9/11 Commission. Whatever the uses of a deliberate and scrupulous bipartisanship in political life, it does not make for good memoir-writing. I read it, but kept slipping into that mild coma that is an occupational hazard for anyone who reviews a lot of not-very-good or just-sort-of-okay books for newspapers.

Yet one thing about Without Precedent did prove quite interesting: the strong emphasis on conspiracy theorists. Or rather, to be more exact, the authors’ preoccupation with trying to head them off at the pass. The spectre of the Warren Commission must have haunted their dreams. They put a lot of thought into establishing what they call “core principles” intended to prevent “the kinds of conspiracy theorizing that have followed in the wake of other inquiries.” They mention this guiding intention not once or twice, but roughly a dozen times.

“We decided to be open and transparent,” they write, “so that people could see how we reached our conclusions about 9/11, and we demanded access to every document and witness in part to demonstrate that we had left no stone unturned in our investigation. We also adopted a policy of openness to the general public: people could send information to our offices, and somebody would review that information.”

Clearly preventing conspiracy theory was a major concern — which also suggests that Kean and Hamilton must have known that it was, for all practical purposes, an effectively hopeless endeavor. The impulse to frame things in terms of conspiracy has very deep roots. It is not an American specialty, by any means. But there is something sobering about reading the pamphlets from the years just before the Revolution and discovering that the patriots were, let’s say, a tad paranoid at times. (George Washington worried about the “systematic plan” of King George and minions to turn the colonists into slaves “as tame and abject,” as he put it in an interesting turn of phrase, “as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.")

. . .

Well, there are all sorts of ways of handling trauma. It’s no surprise that this one has emerged. Whether or not 9/11 itself could have been prevented, something like Scholars for 9/11 Truth was perhaps
inevitable.

But so is the free exercise of critical intelligence, which is why I am glad to be able to end with this link to an encouraging development: The Journal of Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories.

Continued in article

Terrorists are winning the Internet propaganda war --- http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.html
"Conspiracy Theories Continue to Blame Jews and Israel Five Years After 9/11:  The Lie That Won't Die," by Richard Greenberg, The Jewish Journal, September 1, 2006 --- http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16394

These canards have not been fleeting expressions of paranoid fantasy that dissipate once they have been debunked. On the contrary, even today the various "Jews-did-it" scenarios emanating from the wreckage of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have proven stubbornly resilient.

"If anything, they're flourishing," said Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a liberal think-tank based in Somerville, Mass. The idea that Jews were somehow involved in Sept. 11 has now become a permanent feature in the conspiracy pantheon, like the JFK assassination and the Oklahoma City bombing," said Mark Pitcavage, director of fact finding for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The Internet is the chief incubator and disseminator of apocryphal Sept. 11 story lines, and cyberspace remains awash with chatter purporting to link the Jews with America's worst terrorist attacks, according to Pitcavage. But the same message, he added, also is being spread through books, pamphlets, videos and speakers. The practical impact of this phenomenon remains unclear.

The purveyors are an eclectic aggregation that spans the geopolitical spectrum. They include neo-Nazis and other white supremacists in the United States and elsewhere, anti-government zealots, young anti-war activists, Holocaust deniers, Lyndon Larouche supporters, New Age ideologues, propagandists and journalists within the Arab and Muslim world, as well as assorted devotees of the early 20th-century forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which purports to document a Jewish plan to dominate the world. Efforts to connect the Jews with Sept. 11, however, are not limited to fringe groups talking with one another.

Contributors to Wikipedia, the popular and influential online encyclopedia, have tried repeatedly to insert anti-Jewish Sept. 11 theories into Wikipedia's pages and represent them as fact or at least plausible versions of reality, according to Berlet.

The insertions -- which represent one of countless pieces of potentially suspect information submitted to Wikipedia almost daily -- have been promptly excised by the encyclopedia's volunteer editors, said Berlet, himself a Wikipedia editor, "but it requires constant attention."

It's impossible to determine how many viewers see these postings before they are removed from the Wikipedia Web site, which has a daily viewership of roughly 30 million, according to a company spokesman.

The Sept. 11 assaults triggered an almost immediate outpouring of conspiracist conjecture, in part because of the bizarre, almost implausible nature of the attacks, according to Michael Barkun, a professor of political science at Syracuse University who has studied extremist movements and their philosophies.

"These events cried out for some sort of explanation," Barkun said. "This was a golden opportunity for conspiracy theorists to introduce their theories to a broader audience. The thing to remember about conspiracy theories is that they are profoundly psychologically comforting. They give sense and meaning to the world. Nothing is arbitrary or accidental or coincidental."

Not all of the explanatory hypotheses stemming from Sept. 11 implicate Jews. Some accuse the United States government, for example, of being aware of the attacks and doing nothing to stop them in order to justify military intervention in the Muslim world.

But early on anti-Semitic finger pointing came to dominate the revisionist view of Sept. 11, according to a report issued in 2003 by the ADL. These accusations brought "'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' into the 21st century," updating a familiar theme -- that "Jews are inherently evil and have a 'master plan' to rule the world," says the report, which profiles the Sept. 11 conspiracists' cast of suspected plotters and other scapegoats.

They include:

• The Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, which is accused of orchestrating and carrying out the attacks to advance the Jewish state's geopolitical agenda. "This perverse respect for the Mossad," the ADL report says, "derives in part from anti-Semitic notions that only Jews are sufficiently cunning, resourceful, and wicked to have carried out the attacks and blamed them on their enemies."
• A "spy ring" consisting of young Israelis claiming to be art students. They purportedly had been tracking the Sept. 11 hijackers but did nothing to stop them.
• Jewish businessmen, including owners of the World Trade Center, who plotted to destroy the structures to collect insurance money, thus perpetuating the "myth of the greedy Jew," the ADL report says.
• "Four thousand Israelis" who allegedly worked at the World Trade Center but were warned by Israeli intelligence operatives to stay home on Sept. 11. One of the most widely accepted Sept. 11 myths, some sources say it was initiated by Hezbollah's Al-Manar television network.

These assertions either have been laughed off as preposterous -- or investigated and discredited. The "spy ring" story, for example, may have emanated from a disclosure that a number of young Israelis who violated their visas had been deported from the United States. Subsequent reports intimating that the deportees had been engaged in sinister, clandestine activities were examined by The Washington Post, among others, and found to be "nothing more than an urban myth," according to the ADL report.

But the fact that conspiracy theories have been disproven is largely irrelevant to the theories' adherents, according to Barkun. The reason, he said, is that die-hard conspiracy mongers are united by their embrace of what he calls "rejected knowledge."

"These people are profoundly distrustful of authority. It seems absurd to the rest of us, but in the mirror world that conspiracy theorists live, anything that is rejected by mainstream institutions must therefore be true," Barkun said.

A conspiracy-tinged view of world events seems to be gaining traction in America and elsewhere, according to Lou Manza, chairman of the psychology department at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. As evidence of this trend, he cites polls indicating that suspect theories of all kinds have gained popularity over the past 10 to 15 years.

Among the possible explanations for this emerging worldview: In today's information-bloated environment, the conviction that all-powerful forces control global events makes life easier for believers by obviating the need to think critically about complex issues.

"Our environment today is not conducive to a critical-thinking approach, especially with the instant access we have to so much information," Manza said. "If it's on the Internet and the graphics are good, it must be true." But why does it necessarily follow that the Jews in particular were the unseen hand behind America's most infamous terrorist attack?

Because they had something to gain from Sept. 11, according to conspiracists, who contend that military retaliation against Arabs was its own reward for the Jews and Israel.

Asked why the Jews were implicated in the attacks, Barkun said, "You might as well ask, 'Why does anti-Semitism exist?' Unfortunately, the concept is deeply rooted in Western culture. And like a lot of conspiracy theories, it's a closed system of ideas that is structured so that it's impossible to disprove."

In a sense, the extremist explanations for Sept. 11 are merely an update of conspiracy theories that have been evolving ever since the Crusades, according to conservative columnist and analyst Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, who has written two books examining conspiracy theories.

Virtually every major conspiracy theory hatched over the past 900 years has featured one of two key elements, Pipes said. One is so-called "secret societies," such as the Trilateral Commission -- an influential coalition of influential private citizens -- as well as suspected government cabals; the other is the Jews.

Anti-Semitic Sept. 11 scenarios have staying power, but it's unclear how widely they're embraced. In the West, according to Pipes and others, Sept. 11-related Judeophobia seems to have a limited constituency among both ordinary people and those in positions of power and influence.

No American office holder, for example, has tried to score political points by blaming the Jews for Sept. 11 -- although recently defeated Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) made a name for herself by repeatedly taking anti-Israel stands and alleging that the federal government was complicit in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Pipes believes that all told, the Western strain of Sept. 11 revisionism seems dominated by conspiracy buffs rather than bona fide anti-Semites who pose a real danger to Jews.

Berlet takes a less benign view.

"Any form of conspiracy theory is toxic to the democratic process," he said. "How can you reach compromise with those 'evil people' who bombed the World Trade Center? That sort of thinking could flare up in hard times and affect policy."

Overtly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories stemming from Sept. 11 appear to be more widely accepted and tenacious in the Arab and Muslim world than in the West.

"The implications in the Middle East are quite profound," Pipes said. "It's one more brick in the edifice of fear and loathing of Israel and the Jews.''

Continued in article

"Al-Qaida's list of favorite, least favorite Westerners:  Latest warning video from terror group names enemies, friends in U.S., Britain," WorldNetDaily, September 5, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51816

In the latest video from al-Qaida warning of an imminent terrorist attack on the U.S., five specific "Zionist crusader missionaries of hate" are named, while three Westerners, including one American, are actually praised for their efforts toward "peace."

Those singled out as enemies of al-Qaida are Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson, Michael Scheuer and, of course, President Bush. The first three are WND contributors and outspoken media figures who warn about the growing threat of Islamo-fascism. Scheuer is the former head of the CIA unit assigned the mission of hunting down Osama bin Laden.

Perhaps more surprising than a list of enemies – all of whom were directed to convert at once and be accepted into the brotherhood of Islam – was a slightly shorter list of al-Qaida friends in the West.

That list includes Seymour Hersh, the investigative reporter for the New Yorker who most recently claims the U.S. directed the Israeli attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Two Brits are also mentioned in a favorable light by Adam Gadahn, the American spokesman for al-Qaida. They were George Galloway of the House of Commons and Robert Fisk, who writes for the London Independent.

While Gadahn was issuing the statement warning Americans of an impending attack, Galloway was also getting high marks from the terrorist group Hamas, operational allies with al-Qaida.

Hamas' Syrian-based boss, Khaled Mishaal, hailed Galloway for his courage after meeting with him in Damascus. He also thanked him for his opposition stands in the British Parliament and support for the resistance in "Palestine."

Continued in article

In this video series Calvin Sims talks to Sydney Jones, and Islamic expert on terrorism ---
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/conversation.html

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, science for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignorable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert Einstein

Remember what happened to Custer when the both sides had repeating rifles?
The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a voluntary nonproliferation agreement involving 34 countries and supposedly limiting export of unmanned systems that can deliver weapons of mass destruction, defines a antiship cruise missile as having a range of less than 300 kilometers. A cruise missile is a Category II item--meaning, essentially, that it may be exported by any company that manufactures it. (Category I severely limits exports of ballistic missile systems, space-launch vehicles, and land-attack cruise missile systems.) Given that antiship cruise missiles can be converted to land-attack systems, the MTCR is a particularly leaky sieve. But American actions have also inadvertently helped spread the technology. In 1998, when the Clinton administration launched 75 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Osama bin Laden's bases in response to Al-Qaida's bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, six of the missiles misfired and landed across the border in Pakistan. It has long been suspected that these unexploded missiles were studied by Pakistani and Chinese scientists. Ted Postol, a professor of science, technology, and international security at MIT, confirms this: "A Pakistani colleague of mine told me that a significant number of those missiles that we launched at Afghanistan actually landed in Pakistan and those guys reverse-engineered them."
"The Missiles of August:  The democratization of cruise missile technology.--Part II," MIT's Technology Review, August 29, 2006 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17374&ch=biztech

More Sensationalist Bias in the Press
The letter described the author's words as "a racist attack on all people of Jewish descent when he asserted that Jews have been the cause of every tragedy that has befallen them -- from slavery in Egypt to the Holocaust. "We are not surprised when hate-mongers make such statements or when neo-Nazi publications print them. Vulgar and hate-filled statements are written all the time -- editors choose whether or not to publish them. We were, however, surprised, to find them in a Berkeley 'community' newspaper since racism of any kind violates all that our city and region stands for," it read.
Chip Johnson, "Why did Berkeley paper run anti-Jewish column?" San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2006 ---
Click Here

The BBC’s World Service makes the New York Times seem fair and balanced. The BBC’s World Service is by far the world’s largest broadcaster, with some 150 million people tuning in every week in 43 languages. It already partners with 1,500 FM outlets in the U.S. and around the world. Now it seeks an even wider American presence by romancing NPR outlets. What better for Galena, Alaska, and Lyman, Wyoming (both now receiving the BBC’s service), than full coverage of cricket, rugby, gardening—and hard-core anti-American left-wing politics! Unlike NPR, the World Service needn’t worry about fund-raising.
Denis Boyles, City Journal, July 21, 2006 --- http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2006-07-21db.html

The only institution for which the press has any praise on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is, naturally enough, the press. They have spent much of this week congratulating themselves on what a marvelous job they did--which is the surest indication that they have completely missed the real story.
Robert Tracinski, "The Unlearned Lesson of Katrina," RealClearPolitics, September 1, 2006 --- Click Here

New Documentary Film Explains How President Bush Can Be Assassinated
A British television network plans to broadcast a dramatic, documentary-style film about a fictional assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush, the network’s head said Thursday . . . “It’s a pointed political examination of what the war on terror did to the American body politic,” he said.
"Bush assassinated? New film depicts it British TV network defends its airing of ‘Death of a President’," MSNBC, September 1, 2006 --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14608725/
Jensen Comment
Can you imagine doing this to presidents of Islamic nations and living to air your movie?
Ask Salman Rushdie.

If CIA Calls, Should Anthropology Answer?
Of course sometimes anthropologists have in fact sided with the U.S. government — and later not been proud of the results. Franz Boas, one of the founders of American anthropology and one of the first presidents of the American Anthropological Association, was censured by it 1919 after he criticized scholars who served as spies during World War I. Writing in The Nation, Boas said that anthropologists need to preserve a distinction between spies and scholars, who must be dedicated to “the service of truth.” The article so upset his fellow anthropologists that they voted to condemn him.It was only last year that the association rescinded the censure.
"If CIA Calls, Should Anthropology Answer?" Inside Higher Ed, September 1, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/anthro

THE scale of the Holocaust has been "greatly exaggerated", Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said today, adding he had visited several former concentration camps in eastern Europe . . . Iran's fiercely anti-Israeli regime is supportive of so-called Holocaust revisionists, who maintain the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews and other groups during World War II was either invented or exaggerated.
"Iran attacks Holocaust again," The Australian, September 3, 2006 ---
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20345654-1702,00.html

Officials blame the increase in cultivation on the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region . . . He said the increase in cultivation was significantly fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they expanded their opium operations. “This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium — a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent,” Mr. Costa said at a news briefing.
Carlotta Gall, "Opium Harvest at Record Level in Afghanistan," The New York Times, September 3, 2006 --- Click Here

In September 2004, on the first day of class, Chechen militants took more than 1,200 hostages in a school in Beslan, Russia. After nearly three days, explosions and gunfire ripped through the school, leaving more than 300 hostages dead. Two years later, questions remain about what happened and why . . . "They were allowed to camp unmolested in the woods of Ingushetia for two weeks," Dolnik says. "They were allowed to drive dirt roads out of the woods and bypass checkpoints, and, possibly, they prearranged their route with someone who had the power to fix that road." . . . The ruins of the school still stand in the middle of Beslan. There, Kudzeyeva demonstrated how she had to step over bodies on the way to the cafeteria, where militants were waging an all-out battle with soldiers outside. Bullets flew from every direction. Soldiers fired a tank. Militants threw and fired grenades. They ordered women and children to stand in the windows.
"'Mondrage' in Beslan: Inside the School Siege," NPR, August 31, 2006 ---
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5739902
Jensen Comment
This article/audio reveals how the militants managed to travel through the forests. It is still a mystery as to how the roads were fixed for truck travel. As is so common with terrorists, the militants used women and children as human shields.

Students Secretly Capturing Videos of Professors and Posting The Videos to YouTube
Both conservative and liberal sensationalists may even pay students for captured moments in class

"You May Have Been YouTubed," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, September 6, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/06/youtube

If you don’t like what RateMyProfessors.com has done for the image of professors, get ready for the YouTube effect. YouTube is the immensely popular Web site where people post videos of themselves and their friends hanging out, doing mock television shows, watching television, or just about anything you can imagine in front of a video camera of some sort.

Because YouTube is very popular with college students, it should probably come as no surprise that they are posting videos of course scenes on the Web site — and judging from interviews with the “stars” of these postings, the professors aren’t being asked or giving permission for the filming. Nonetheless, some of the videos feature professors’ names, disciplines and institutions.

Judith Thorpe, who just retired from teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, had no idea that someone had filmed her class and posted it, with her name. Matt Kearly had no idea that what claims to be a biology lecture he gave this month at Auburn University had been posted. In other cases, professors aren’t named, but they are clearly visible and held up to ridicule — as in the video of a professor who is not a native speaker of English mispronouncing a word repeatedly, and made fun of by the student who posted the video. The word is “glucocorticoids” — not a word many non-experts would necessarily use with ease.

To be sure, many of the videos of campus scenes are from public events — protests, strikes, inaugurations. And many more are just silly and don’t invade anyone’s privacy. But many others involve filming courses, or staging events in courses. The boredom of lectures is a frequent theme, with audio of a professor talking while students look bored — or in the case of one student at Southern Methodist University, fight a losing battle to stay awake.

Hijinks are also common, in many cases interrupting classes. There’s the student who talks about honoring his great grandfather’s birthday by mooning a large lecture class. (Warning/spoiler: He goes through with it, so the link may be more detail than you want.) Indiana University students revel at Halloween by interrupting classes as the Village People or portraying scenes from Ghostbusters.

To colleges and faculty members, the filming raises a variety of issues — with regard to their intellectual property and their dignity. Many colleges have been warning students about the images they post of themselves and their friends on YouTube, telling them that scenes of drinking and partying that seem amusing in a dormitory room may not go over well with potential employers. But colleges’ focus has been on telling students about the harm they may be doing to themselves, not their professors.

YouTube, whose officials did not respond to phone calls or e-mail messages about this story, posts a variety of warnings on its site about how people should post only those videos for which they have ownership rights, and that it will not post “hateful” videos, among other categories barred by its terms of service. There is also a form someone can fill out to object to a video posting of them, if they own the copyright.

Of course, people who were never asked if they could be filmed in class wouldn’t know that they had reason to check what is on the site.

Ann Springer, staff counsel for the American Association of University Professors, said that no professor should be filmed in class without granting permission. “The professor’s presentation in class is the professor’s intellectual property, and to submit it to a Web site is a violation of those rights — and a concern to the university and the professor,” she said. If a competing college started posting video of a professor’s courses, that would be a violation of rights, and the same legal principles apply, regardless of whether there is profit involved, Springer said.

She stressed that this wasn’t a free speech issue. “Students will always mock professors and there’s nothing you can do about that,” she said. But filming them without permission is the issue, whatever the use of the video.

In cases where taping of professors has become public — generally when the taping was politically motivated, not just for the purpose of mocking — universities have responded, she noted. In January, for example, a conservative group at the University of California at Los Angeles offered to pay students to tape professors, with the idea of exposing alleged ideological bias. The group backed down when the university and faculty groups raised intellectual property issues.

A spokesman for Indiana University said that the institution has received no complaints from professors about having their lectures filmed, but that university officials would consider it a violation of rules barring “disorderly conduct” or behavior that interferes with teaching. University policy gives professors the right to permit or reject any photography or taping in their classes.

Aside from the legal issues, there are also questions to some academics about how this YouTube trend affects professors generally, and whether anything can be done about it. Neil Gross, a sociologist at Harvard University, has surveyed public attitudes about faculty members, and found “soft support” for their work, and skepticism of some of their views. He said that in the mocking of professors on YouTube, he saw some strains of political disagreement with professors, along with “classic anti-intellectual themes, as well as the typical youthful distaste for authority.”

Several academic blogs, such as Yellow Dog and Digital Digs, have been discussing the implications as they relate to both professors and high school teachers (videos abound on YouTube of teachers losing their temper in class, for instance). Among the issues being raised are whether this form of expression — however upsetting to faculty members — is an example of students acting on their feelings and expressing themselves, something composition instructors in particular tend to encourage.

The blog Metaspencer predicted that YouTube would have an impact that builds on the way RateMyProfessors.com has intimidated many faculty members — who hate the site and check to see how they are doing on it.

“When that site first went online, many seemed outraged that college level instructors would be publicly assessed in this way, outside of our already established course-evaluation-systems, and in many cases, professors have been graphically slandered and bodily objectified on that site. RateMyProfessors.com made our lives as college level instructors suddenly unstable and encouraged some of us to be just a bit more careful, if that’s the right word, when it comes to what we do in the classroom,” the blog said. “Videos of teachers on YouTube, however, magnify whatever paranoia RateMyProfessors.com may have generated. Were you videotaped in front of your class yesterday? Today? Yesterday? Will what you do with your students be edited and presented in a way that you feel misrepresents how you teach?”

Jensen Comment
To see some of the professors on video, go to the following link and type in the search term "Professor" for a given category --- http://www.youtube.com/categories

Bob Jensen's threads on student evaluations of professors are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#GradeInflation

Exercises in Math Readiness --- http://math.usask.ca/mrc-cgi-bin/emr/first_page.cgi 

Bob Jensen's threads on mathematics tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Question
What states have the highest and lowest average K-12 teacher salaries?

According to the American Federation of Teachers, the state with the highest average 2003-2004 salary for teachers was Connecticut, at $56,516; the lowest was South Dakota, at $33,236.

The 2004 AFT salary surveys are at http://www.aft.org/salary/index.htm
The AFT teacher salary survey found that the average teacher salary in the 2003-04 school year was $46,597, a 2.2 percent increase from the year before.  This falls short of the rate of inflation for 2004, which was 2.7 percent.

Also see http://www.calnews.com/Archives/1YB_II_sal.htm

"An Etiquette Lesson," by Alaina G. Levine, Inside Higher Ed, August 29, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/workplace/2006/08/28/levine

It was the luncheon portion of the academic conference when I witnessed the anomaly. A gorgeous, well-dressed man had claimed the chair to my right at the table. There are plenty of good-looking academics, but few of them show up to a scholarly conference impeccably dressed in a three-piece pin-stripped suit, matching tie tack and cuff links, and shoes as shiny as mirrors. My reaction upon observing this unusual creature outside his native habitat? This is going to be a mighty fine lunch.

I would like to say that this story has a happy ending and that we united to form scholarly offspring who speak five languages and tell physics jokes without appearing nerdy. But alas, this was not to be in this timeline. As Dr. Suit sat down for lunch, he reached across the table to grab a roll from the bread basket. He buried his entire hairy hand in the vessel until he found the specimen he craved. It was a perfectly round roll. He then proceeded to spread mountains of butter on its entire spherical surface, until the roll ceased to be no longer. It had been transformed…to a Ball o’ Butter. Dr. Suit’s fingers were smeared with butter and when he appeared satisfied that his masterpiece, the Ball o’ Butter, was complete, he then commenced gorging on it, one huge buttery bite at a time. He shifted said Ball o’ Butter between hands, licking his once perfectly manicured fingers as he went. I quickly lost my appetite (for the food and the man).

I often think of this moment — not because I hunger for memories of the grotesque — but because I wonder: Is this how Dr. Suit behaves on a job interview? Or at dinner with his dean? I would hope not, but something tells me he had no idea that he was demonstrating improper and disrespectful manners, in the process making a lasting negative impression on me.

Professionals in any field often neglect a basic understanding of proper etiquette in interacting with other human beings. We are inclined to argue that our skills, talents and reputation alone will secure us advancement opportunities. Academics especially opine that any impression they impart from behavior is inconsequential to what super star scholars they are, and it matters not how they hold their fork or eat their bread at a business dinner.

But the truth is that academe is a profession in which one must behave professionally at all times. Being professional means demonstrating you are serious about your craft, and having good manners and proper business etiquette for all occasions promotes and amplifies your level of professionalism. When you practice flawless etiquette, your talents are bolstered, allowing attention to be paid to you, and not your slimy buttery fingers (which you keep wiping on your pants). Furthermore, in acting as a professional with professional behavioral traits, you are demonstrating a high level of respect for both you and your colleagues.

In Dr. Suit’s case, he made some terrible and basic mistakes when he sat down at the lunch. He ruined his chances of communicating his wisdom because all I could concentrate on was his bad manners. Here are some pointers for professional etiquette at meals and in interactions so that you don’t become a Dr. Suit:

Smile, and remember other actions to take during the first interaction. When you meet someone for the first time, there are five things you should do: introduce yourself, shake the person’s hand, look them in the eyes, smile, and say their name back to them (so they know you are listening and you know that you pronounced their moniker correctly).

Keep your handshake quick, firm and dry. Shaking hands leaves more of an impression than one realizes. Your handshake should be firm, dry, and quick. The shake should employ two pumps up and down, and then get the heck out of there. Don’t linger and don’t keep holding their hand like you’re mates. Don’t use your other hand for the “reach around,” in which you grab your colleagues shoulder and shake their entire body. Utilize the whole hand — don’t engage a shake with three fingers. Keep yourself dry by not clasping anything in advance (like a drink or a briefcase), and always use your right hand.

Place that napkin on your lap. When you arrive at a luncheon, whether the table is for 2 people or 10, sit down and immediately put the napkin on your lap. The napkin will stay on your lap the entire time you are sitting there, even after the meal is complete. It should never touch the table until you rise to leave.

Harness the silverware. If you are at an event in which the table is set with multiple utensils, here is a simple trick to remember which to use and when. Start from the outside in, and for each course, use the utensil that is farthest from your plate. If you drop your fork on the floor, ask your server for another — don’t reach for it.

Utilize the b-d rule for triumph over the bread plate. When you sit down at a round table, you are immediately faced with lots of glasses, coffee cups, and bread plates. Which is yours? You can’t go wrong with the b-d rule. In your lap, take both your hands and form the OK sign with your thumb and pointer finger touching to shape an “o”. Keep your other fingers extended straight and together. With both hands in this position, you will see the shape of a “b” on the left hand and a “d” on the right. The “b” stands for bread, which means your bread plate will always be on your left. The “d” means drink, which translates to your drinking glasses and cup placed on your right. Now, invariably at large luncheon tables, there will be someone who will make an error, incorrectly claim the bread plate on their right, causing a domino effect around the table, leaving you without. No need to fret (or call attention to the mistake). Simply ask the server for another one.

Don’t reach or grab, just pass. If you want something on the table, such as the salt shaker or bread basket, and it is not within arm’s length (while you are still sitting), ask your colleague to pass it to you. For bread baskets, there is no need to touch every roll, just take the one at the top. When you have made your selection, put the basket directly in front of you (you don’t have to pass it back to the person unless they request it). If someone asks you to pass the salt, always offer both the salt and pepper, and never grasp the shakers from the top.

Consume your bread in no less than an eon. Don’t eat your roll like an apple. The courteous way to dine on bread is to tear off a bite-size piece, butter only that morsel, and pop it in your mouth. Chew, swallow, and repeat. It may take a million years to eat your bread, but at least you will look like a gentleman or lady while doing it.

Other rules include not eating until everyone is served, and refraining from wiping your nose, picking your teeth, or applying ChapStick while seated at the table.

I was having dinner with one of my graduate students and a CEO a few years ago when I noticed my student was holding his fork like he was in the Big House and was fearful someone would try to swipe it. He treated it like a scoop, and shoveled food into his mouth like it was his last meal. I was embarrassed for him, embarrassed for me, and embarrassed for the business leader, especially since the student was speaking with him about potential job opportunities. I would have hated for this talented, intelligent, and driven student of excellent academic pedigree to miss out on a professional opportunity simply because he did not take the time to employ the most courteous way to interact with someone over a business meal.

The reality is that scholarly strength can get you in the door, but proper etiquette and manners will seal the deal, and ultimately, elevate your academic credentials. So the next time you have an important function, wear a great suit, shine your shoes, and make sure you hone your business etiquette skills before you go. You will make an impression that can land you the opportunity you crave. And for goodness sake, under no circumstances, no matter how much you desire it, don’t lick your fingers and don’t build a Ball o’ Butter.

Alaina G. Levine is director of special projects for the University of Arizona College of Science, where she oversees the Professional Science Master’s Program. She is also president of Quantum Success Solutions.

The Obese/Piggish Generation: Students help themselves to bigger portions than we did when we were in college
A study of how college students serve themselves in college cafeterias has found that today’s students take significantly larger portions, on average, than did students 20 years ago. For instance, students asked to serve themselves a portion of cereal are likely to take 44 grams today, up from 37 grams 20 years ago. Most portions are also well above recommended portion sizes, according to the study, which appears in this month’s Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
Inside Higher Ed, September 5, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/05/qt

The University of Florida Needs More Roman Studies
The University of Florida has distributed several thousand T-shirts in which Roman numerals intended to indicate 2006 (MMVI) in fact indicate 26 (XXVI). After discovering the mistake, the university will have many thousands of other T-shirts redone, The Gainesville Sun reported.
Inside Higher Ed, September 5, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/05/qt
Jensen Comment
This is not as serious as the year Trinity University printed its main college catalog with "Trinity" misspelled on the front cover.

"In Defense of Welfare Reform:  Ten years of a controversial policy that worked wonders," by Cathy Young, Reason Magazine, August 29, 2006 --- http://www.reason.com/cy/cy082906.shtml 

There remains, however, much to be done. Perhaps the biggest weakness of welfare reform is that it has focused almost exclusively on women, neglecting the all-important issue of their partners and the fathers of their children. Many reports on the struggles of single mothers trying to get themselves and their children out of poverty treat the men in these women's and children's lives as an obstacle to success, offering stories of hard-working women held back by lazy, feckless, often violent boyfriends. In some cases the stereotype is true; but many of those men, like many women, are trapped by a lack of resources and skills and by a subculture that offers few models of successful work and parenting. And some, as reporter and author Jason DeParle and others have documented, are trying their best to stay connected to their children.

Today, there is a need for more efforts, in the public and private sector alike, to encourage employment and child-rearing among poor fathers. One of the baneful effects of the old welfare system was that it enshrined the idea of family and children as a female sphere while turning men into outsiders. Reintegrating men into families will not end poverty or solve all social problems, but it will be a major step in the right direction.

Continued in article

Family Violence Prevention Fund --- http://endabuse.org/

Frank Rich [The New York Times] and company claimed that people were trapped in New Orleans because they had been abandoned for decades by a stingy government that denied them an adequate level of welfare handouts. In fact, New Orleans received a higher per-capita rate of federal welfare spending than most cities--a full 78 percent more than the national average--and the districts hardest hit by the flooding contained some of the city's largest public housing projects. The welfare state had showered its largesse on New Orleans, but with what result? In fact, the disaster in New Orleans was caused, not by too little welfare spending, but by too much. Four decades of dependence on government left people without the resources--economic, intellectual, or moral--to plan ahead and provide for themselves in an emergency.
Robert Tracinski, "The Unlearned Lesson of Katrina," RealClearPolitics, September 1, 2006 --- Click Here

According to 2006 (lst Qtr) INS/FBI Statistical Report 58% of all welfare payments in the United States are issued to illegal aliens. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties in the United States are illegal aliens.
Idaho Observer --- Click Here

Hunger in America 2006 --- http://www.hungerinamerica.org/ 

NFL Football Second Guessing the Coaches
A startup venture, EndGame Technologies, has designed novel computer modeling software to assist National Football League coaches with critical play-calling decisions--the kind that often determine the outcome of the game. Should a team punt on fourth down--or go for it? Or attempt a two-point conversion after a touchdown? The software, called ZEUS, is designed to answer such questions by calculating the consequences of each decision in a matter of seconds.
Brittany Sauser, "Revolutionizing Football:  New computer modeling software could make gridiron coaches rethink their decisions and look to science for guidance," MIT's Technology Review, August 31, 2006 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17383&ch=infotech  

"Fire-the-coach Web sites a big business," PhysOrg, August 31, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news76257644.html

EA, the world's largest video game publisher, said consumers snapped up more than 2 million copies of "Madden NFL 07" in its opening week, up 12 percent from last year's game launch. The Madden game is the flagship franchise for the Redwood City-based game maker, with new versions each year ranking consistently as best sellers. To date, more than 53 million copies of the game have been sold.
"Madden Video Game Posts Record Sales," PhysOrg, September 1, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news76332609.html
Jensen Comment
Please don't consider this Tidbit an endorsement. Bob Jensen is opposed to all video games other than those specifically designed for education and training. Although there are entertainment values from other types of games, I think the negatives outweigh the positives in most instances.

Computer defeats humans at the NYT’s crossword Puzzles
Crossword-solving computer program WebCrow has defeated 25 human competitors in a puzzle competition in Riva del Garda, Italy. The program took both first- and second-place honors in the contest, which was staged as part of the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, New Scientist reported Thursday. The two English puzzles were taken from The New York Times and The Washington Post, while two Italian puzzles were taken from newspapers in the country. A fifth puzzle featured clues in both languages taken from all four sources. "It exceeded our expectations because there were around 15 Americans in the competition," said Marco Ernandes, who created WebCrow along with Giovanni Angelini and Marco Gori. "Now we'd like to test it against more people with English as their first language."
"Computer defeats humans at crossword," PhysOrg, September 1, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news76345125.html

How can this happen? Sometimes the best of the best in the U.S. just isn't enough
Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the world championships. ''To lose any game is a shock to us,'' U.S. star Carmelo Anthony said. ''We came in with the mentality to win the game and the gold medal.'' Instead, the best Anthony can do now is add another bronze to his collection. Greece (8-0) can earn a world title to go with the European championship it won in 2005 with a victory over Spain in Sunday's gold-medal game. Spain (8-0) beat Argentina 75-74 on Friday night. ''They played like a champion plays,'' U.S. forward Shane Battier said of Greece.
"Greece Shocks U.S. Basketball Team," New York Times, September 1, 2006 --- Click Here

Question
Do you really want to attend a fraudulent academic conference for lines on a resume and/or a paid vacation?
Is this violation of your personal integrity really worth it?

August 31, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen to a professor who proposed rating conferences.

Hi XXXXX,

Publishing ratings of conferences will be almost impossible due to endless debates that will arise over defining criteria.

I wish you luck if you carry through with this effort, but I think that it will be very difficult to shut down fraud conferences. Organizers of fraud conferences are very good at their craft, and the professors who attend them are desperate for new lines on dusty old resumes. The professors who attend are often very good teachers frustrated with blank spaces each year by blank spaces for evidence of research in their performance reports.

Hence, the "teachers" who attend fraud conferences will continue to do so even if you take the time and trouble to warn them. These professors want the lines on a resume and an expense-paid vacation in a terrific tourist locale. Interestingly, many of these professors justify this by truly believing that they are badly underpaid and are fully justified for reimbursed travel for R&R if nothing else.

Since you are only listing the good conferences, college deans and administrators will not necessarily be forewarned of the bad conferences since you can't be expected to list 100% of the good conferences in all fields of business, finance, and economics. Most fraud conferences in our discipline are very generic and cover all fields of business and economics. It will be very difficult to track over 1,000 conferences (most legitimate) across such a wide path.

I think the best we can do is plead with the academy, and possibly our reimbursing colleges, to demand accountability of registration fees for conferences. They should be treated a bit like charitable organizations where conference organizers must give an expense accounting and disclose how much of the conference revenues go to personal profit and "administrative expense."

Bob Jensen

Bob Jensen's threads on fraudulent academic conferences are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#AcademicConferences

Punctuation Substitution (or how to be cute with symbols) --- http://www.zefrank.com/punc/

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Factually Incorrect Guides --- http://90percenttrue.com/?p=116

"Researchers create new system to address phishing fraud," PhysOrg, September 1, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news76325493.html

Carnegie Mellon University CyLab researchers have developed a new anti-phishing tool to protect users from online transactions at fraudulent Web sites. 

A research team led by Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Adrian Perrig has created the Phoolproof Phishing Prevention system that protects users against all network-based attacks, even when they make mistakes. The innovative security system provides strong mutual authentication between the Web server and the user by leveraging a mobile device, such as the user's cell phone or PDA.

The system is also designed to be easy for businesses to implement. Perrig, along with engineering Ph.D. student assistants Bryan Parno and Cynthia Kuo, has developed an anti-phishing system that makes the user's cell phone an active participant in the authentication process to securely communicate with a particular Internet site.

"Essentially, our research indicates that Internet users do not always make correct security decisions, so our new system helps them make the right decision, and protects them even if they manage to make a wrong decision," Perrig said. "Our new anti-phishing system, which operates with the standard secure Web protocol, ensures that the user accesses the Web site they intend to visit, instead of a phishing site posing as a legitimate business. The mobile device acts like an electronic assistant, storing a secure bookmark and a cryptographic key for each of the user's online accounts."

Phoolproof Phishing Prevention essentially provides a secure electronic key ring that the user can access while making online transactions, according to Parno. These special keys are more secure than one-time passwords because the user can't give them away. So, phishers can't access the user's accounts, even if they obtain other information about the user, researchers said.

Since the user's cell phone performs cryptographic operations without revealing the secret key to the user's computer, the system also defends against keyloggers and other malicious software on the user's computer. Even if the user loses the cell phone, the keys remain secure.

Driving the need for this new tool is escalating consumer worries over online fraud -- a major barrier for a banking industry seeking to push consumers to do more of their banking online. More than 5 percent of Internet users say they have stopped banking online because of security concerns, up from 1 percent a year ago, according to industry reports.

Complicating the concern for more secure financial sites is a looming deadline for new security guidelines from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), a group of government agencies that sets standards for financial institutions. Last year, the FFIEC set a Dec. 31 deadline for banks to add online security measures beyond just a user name and password. Failure to meet that deadline could result in fines, the FFIEC said.

Bob Jensen's threads on phishing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#Phishing

From the University of Pennsylvania
How to deal with unwelcome mail and telephone solitications --- http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/consumer_warfare.html

Other guides for frustrating telemarketers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#Telemarketing

Also from the University of Pennsylvania:  How many arrests does it take to fire a tenured professor?
"A Ring of Fire," by Rob Capriccioso, Inside Higher Ed, August 31, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/31/upenn

Penn officials said Tuesday that Ward would never teach again at the university. But some are asking what took them so long, since this was not the first time, but the third, that Ward had been charged in sex scandals involving minors.

Catherine Bath, executive director of Security on Campus, a nonprofit organization concerned with campus safety, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that it seemed that Penn “was giving him a chance” despite his history. “But do you really want known child molesters on your campus?” she asked. “I would say no.”

“It seems like an odd situation,” said Jason Johnston, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “I’m not surprised people are having negative reactions.”

In 1995, the marketing professor was acquitted of “involuntary deviate sexual intercourse” after an 18-year-old male alleged that he had sexual contact with Ward between 50 and 100 times from the time he was 13 or 14 years old. Four years later, in 1999, Ward was accused of soliciting sex from a state trooper who had posed as a 15-year-old boy. In that case, he pleaded guilty without admitting that he tried to promote prostitution and corrupt minors. Ultimately, he was given five years of probation and fined $2,500. Ward is currently being held in a Virginia jail and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not return calls for comment on Wednesday.

Continued in article

How much stolen money does it take to fire a tenured professor?
Priscilla Slade was fired as president of Texas Southern University and was indicted last month based on allegations that she mismanaged university funds and that some were used inappropriately for her home (charges that she denies). The Houston Chronicle reported that Slade is teaching accounting at Texas Southern this semester. Texas Southern officials noted that Slade is a tenured professor and that her firing as president did not revoke her tenure.
Inside Higher Ed, August 31, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/31/qt

Bob Jensen's threads on higher Education Controversies are at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/31/qt

The Brain's Filing System:  Where do you store your memory of socks in your bureau?
Socks in the sock drawer, shirts in the shirt drawer, the time-honored lessons of helping organize one’s clothes learned in youth. But what parts of the brain are used to encode such categories as socks, shirts, or any other item, and how does such learning take place? New research from Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigators has identified an area of the brain where such memories are found. They report in the advanced online Nature that they have identified neurons that assist in categorizing visual stimuli. They found that the activity of neurons in a part of the brain called the parietal cortex encode the category, or meaning, of familiar visual images and that brain activity patterns changed dramatically as a result of learning. Their results suggest that categories are encoded by the activity of individual neurons (brain cells) and that the parietal cortex is a part of the brain circuitry that learns and recognizes the meaning of the things that we see.
"Brain's Filing System Uncovered," PhysOrg, August 28, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news75960117.html

Web sites recommended by Time Magazine on August 31, 2006, Page 64:

• Zunafish goods trading site --- http://www.zunafish.com/
  Zunafish® lets you trade your old media items for new titles you’d rather have. And, oh yeah— it’s fun, simple and dirt cheap: just a buck a trade!
• Dodgeball friend finder locates friends nearby when you want to hang out a bit --- http://www.dodgeball.com/
  Dodgeball will locate nearby friends and send them messages about where to find you.
• Pixsy search services finds recent videos, pictures, and news stories --- http://www.pixsy.com/ 

* World News * Sports * Science News * Celebrities & Entertainment * Politics * People & Dating * Photo & Video Sharing * Posters & Products * Tech News * Style & Fashion * Travel

• Digg news article site based upon reader popularity --- http://www.digg.com/
  Many of the articles deal with product effectiveness, price, and value.
• Number-Logic Sodoku Portal for wasting time with a number puzzle--- http://www.number-logic.com/
• Pandora for finding songs and recording artists --- http://www.pandora.com/
• Yelp customer reviews of hotels, restaurants, clubs, and other travel categories --- http://www.yelp.com/

Are lawyers padding expense billings?
The career of Matthew Farmer, a junior partner in the Chicago law offices of Holland & Knight LLP, was on the upswing in December 2004. He had just won a monthlong trial for Pinnacle Corp., a Midwestern home builder accused of copyright infringement, and gotten kudos from many of his partners. But weeks later, after reviewing billing records in the Pinnacle matter, he decided to leave the 1,200-lawyer firm. Mr. Farmer, 42 years old, believed his own hours on the case had been inflated by the partner in charge of billing, 62-year-old Edward Ryan. Fearing he would violate state ethics rules if he kept quiet, Mr. Farmer blew the whistle to Holland & Knight lawyers.
Nathan Koppel, "Lawyer's Charge Opens Window On Bill Padding," The Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2006; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115689325718248915.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
Jensen Comment
Large accounting firms previously got caught up in bill padding scandals, particularly inflated airline fare reimbursements --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#BigFirms

Warning to retirees: Beware of your families
Financial swindles are one of the fastest-growing forms of elder abuse. By some estimates, as many as five million senior citizens are victimized each year, says Sara Aravanis, director of the nonprofit National Center on Elder Abuse, which provides information to federal and state policy makers. Because of the problem's spread, "many states have laws authorizing financial institutions to report suspicions of elderly abuse," says Bruce Jay Baker, general counsel for the Illinois Bankers Association. Earlier this summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission hosted a Seniors Summit to highlight the issue, with SEC Chairman Christopher Cox noting that protecting seniors' pocketbooks "is one of the most important issues of our time."
Jeff D. Opdyke, "Intimate Betrayal: When the Elderly Are Robbed by Their Family Members," The Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2006; Page D1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115689331870748918.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

February 18, 2005 message from Joanne Tweed [ibridges@san.rr.com] 

America's seniors are being cheated of their life's savings by securities Broker/Dealers. 
SENIORS AGAINST SECURITIES FRAUD http://seniorsagainstsecuritiesfraud.com  offers supportive educational links and solutions. Please consider linking.

Most Sincerely,
Joanne Tweed

Fear of Blackboard's Patent Just Will Not Go Away

"Patent Fight Rattles Academic Computing," PhysOrg, August 28, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news75967078.html

Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades - all from a program running on a PC.

It may seem self-evident that virtual classrooms should closely resemble real ones. But a major education software company contends it wasn't always so obvious. And now, in a move that has shaken up the e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software that powers online education.

The patent, awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based company in January but announced last month, has prompted an angry backlash from the academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion - through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps make its case.

Critics say the patent claims nothing less than Blackboard's ownership of the very idea of e-learning. If allowed to stand, they say, it could quash the cooperation between academia and the private sector that has characterized e-learning for years and explains why virtual classrooms are so much better than they used to be.

The patent is "is antithetical to the way that academia makes progress," said Michael Feldstein, assistant director of the State University of New York's online learning network and one of the bloggers who has criticized the company.

Blackboard, which recently became the dominant company in the field by acquiring rival WebCT, says the critics misunderstand what the patent claims. But the company does say it must protect its $100 million investment in the technology. The day the patent was announced, Blackboard sued rival Desire2Learn for infringement and is seeking royalties.

"It just wouldn't be a level playing field if someone could come onto the scene tomorrow, copy everything that Blackboard and WebCT have done and call it their own," said Blackboard general counsel Matthew Small.

Waterloo, Ontario-based Desire2Learn said it was surprised by the lawsuit but will defend itself vigorously. No court date has been set.

The dispute is part of a contentious area of the law concerning patents awarded not just on invented objects, but on ideas and processes. In theory, patents can be awarded on a whole range of ideas as long as they are "non-obvious" and the Patent Office sees no evidence they have been described before. Patents have been awarded for everything from types of credit card offers to methods of teaching a golf swing.

Now, the issue is surfacing in the growing field of e-learning.

According to the Sloan Consortium, 2.3 million U.S. college students were taking at least one course entirely online in the fall of 2004 - a figure that is likely higher now and doesn't include "hybrid" classes with both online and in-person components. Most of those students use so-called "Learning Management Systems," which provide the electronic backbone for online education. For-profit and traditional universities are investing millions in these systems, hoping the upfront investment will pay off down the road with a more efficient teaching model.

About 90 percent of colleges use some kind of LMS, according to data from Eduventures, a Boston company that does research and con