Cannon
Mountain is one of the oldest ski mountains in North America. The
mountain is in the Franconia State Park and is managed by the Park Service. The
mountain is also a popular mountain for technical rock and ice climbing. The
picture below shows our view (with camera zoomed last autumn) of the top of the
aerial tram that, along with a number of chair lifts, takes skiers to the top of
the mountain. The second picture from my desk (camera unzoomed) shows some of
the ski trails and clouds hanging over Franconia notch. Mt. Lafayette and Mt.
Lincoln are shown on the left side of the Notch. The bright light is the
reflection of my camera's flash in the front window. The tram pictured below
runs in the winter and summer.



Below is a shot of Mt. Washington that I took from
my desk in December. There's also a very popular ski area, as well as a very
historic hotel/resort, on Mt. Washington. The famous
July 1944 United Nations Bretton Woods Monetary and Financial Conference
attended by President Roosevelt and other world leaders was signed in the hotel
pictured below. Unfortunately,
Mt. Washington has some of the worst weather (high winds) in the continental
U.S.


The story below won't be found in the
traditional media. It was forwarded by my friend Col. Robert Booth.
By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines,
sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty
that is war. Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded
and facing months or years in military hospitals. This week, I'm turning my
space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col. Robert
Bateman , who recently completed a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq and is now
back at the Pentagon.
Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known
ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with
cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on
May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media
Matters for America Website.
"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring
of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors
shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the
entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and
some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls.
There are thousands here.
This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army'
hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the
corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may
not have seen ea ch other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other,
cross the way and renew.
Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down
the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this p ress of
bodies in this area.
The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares.
"10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of
the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the
building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a
deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the
hallway.
"A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at
the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with
his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg,
and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is
a private, or perhaps a private first class.
"Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels
meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago
when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were
somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt
for not having shared in the burden ... yet.
"Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like
the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the
applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The
soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.
"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E
to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted
as need be by a field grade officer.
"11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady
applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in
my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four
minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.
Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down
this hall came 30 solid hearts.
They pass down this corridor of officers and
applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of
honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon
getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held
up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching
handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More
than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.
"There are families with them as well: the
18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not
quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew
up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant
Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an
appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that
hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a
few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple
of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in
the past.
These are our men, broken in body they may be, but
they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on,
every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.
" Did you know that?
The nation's newspapers and television stations
have not reported this story
Tidbits on February 28, 2008
Bob Jensen
For earlier editions of Tidbits go to
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
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"
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Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's Home Page is at
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CPA
Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long
and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was
generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My
wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
Bob Jensen's blogs and various threads on many topics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
(Also scroll down to the table at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ )
Global Incident Map ---
http://www.globalincidentmap.com/home.php
Set up free conference calls at
http://www.freeconference.com/
Also see
http://www.yackpack.com/uc/
Free Online Tutorials in Multiple Disciplines ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Google Maps Street View ---
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Tips on computer and networking
security ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm
If you want to help our badly injured troops, please check out
Valour-IT: Voice-Activated Laptops for Our Injured Troops ---
http://www.valour-it.blogspot.com/
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
More Demands from Islam (video) ---
http://www.dotsub.com/films/moredemands/index.php?autostart=true&language_setting=en_1618
How science stuff works ---
http://science.howstuffworks.com/
Hugs and kisses from the King of the
Jungle ---
http://www.telestereo.com/Archivos/video.html
PowerPoint Explanation of the Subprime Mess ---
Click Here
(Hit the arrow buttons to change screens)
The Unknown Professor who runs the
Financial Rounds blog says his kids love
Pinky and the Brain, Tongue Twister ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIu4fP4fOHE
I would never be able to read this script out loud!
William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) died yesterday ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley%2C_Jr.
Distinctive Voices@ The Beckman Center ---
http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Beckman_main
Distinctive Voices@The Beckman Center
highlights innovations, discoveries, and emerging issues in an exciting and
engaging public forum. Do you wonder how things work? What the future holds?
If you are curious about the science and technology behind today’s hot
topics, Distinctive Voices is for you!
Spend an evening gaining insights on
significant advances in medicine, biotechnology, energy, the environment,
space exploration, and more. Learn from some of the best minds in the world
-- including members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National
Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine -- in presentations
geared to the general public.
Yahoo Science ---
http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/
Free music downloads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Switzerland Slide Show ---
Click Here
Nat King Cole Slide Show ---
Click Here
Vasectomy (Humor) ---
Click Here
Barbra Streisand - He Touched Me (1967) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO-wPOgVtqg
Do You Remember These? (Statler Brothers) ---
http://oldfortyfives.com/DYRT.htm
Statler Brothers Videos ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statler_Brothers
Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials)
---
http://www.slacker.com/
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
Medical Dictionary ---
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp
Botanicus ---
http://www.botanicus.org/
The Encyclopedia of TV ---
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/index.html
USDA: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ---
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/
Writings of Thomas Wentworth Higginson ---
http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/higginson/
Small Business Administration information services guides
Business.gov ---
http://www.business.gov/
Bob Jensen's small business helpers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#SmallBusiness
Bob Jensen's links to business and economics data ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
Planet eBook (download the classics) ---
http://www.planetebook.com/
Off-the-record discussions between Robert Frost and Dartmouth
College students 60 years ago may provide new insights into the
poet, as transcripts are about to be published, the
Associated Press reported. The
sessions were recorded on reel-to-reel tapes and are becoming
public because of the work of an editor at the Poetry Foundation
who came across them while an undergraduate at Dartmouth. The
first transcript will be published this month in the journal
Literary Imagination, whose editor described the conversations
as “Frost unplugged.”
Inside Higher Ed, February 25, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/25/qt
Through a partnership
that marks a turning point in scholarly publishing at Indiana
University, Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries Patricia
Steele announced today (Feb. 21) the publication of Museum
Anthropology Review, the first faculty-generated electronic
journal supported by the IU Bloomington Libraries ---
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/7590.html
As David Bartholomae observes, “We make a huge
mistake if we don’t try to articulate more publicly what it is we value in
intellectual work. We do this routinely for our students — so it should not be
difficult to find the language we need to speak to parents and legislators.” If
we do not try to find that public language but argue instead that we are not
accountable to those parents and legislators, we will only confirm what our
cynical detractors say about us, that our real aim is to keep the secrets of our
intellectual club to ourselves. By asking us to spell out those secrets and
measuring our success in opening them to all, outcomes assessment helps make
democratic education a reality.
Gerald Graff, "Assessment Changes
Everything," Inside Higher Ed, February 21, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/02/21/graff
Gerald Graff is professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago
and president of the Modern Language Association. This essay is adapted from a
paper he delivered in December at the MLA annual meeting, a version of which
appears on the MLA’s Web site and is reproduced here with the association’s
permission. Among Graff’s books are Professing Literature, Beyond the
Culture Wars and Clueless in Academe: How School Obscures the Life of the Mind.
50 percent divorce rate was the catalyst for The
30-Day Sex Challenge. The church set up a Web site concerning the challenge,
Local 6 reported. "And that's no different for people who attend church," Wirth
said. "Sometimes life gets in the way. Our jobs get in the way." Oh, and the
flip side of the challenge? No rolling in the sheets for the unwed. Church
member Tim Jones and his fiancee agreed to take on the challenge, though he
acknowledges it'll be a tough month. But he added: "I think it's worth trying to
find out other things about each other."
"Church Challenges Members: Have Sex Every Day," Orlando
Channel 6, February 19, 2008 ---
http://www.local6.com/news/15338180/detail.html
Jensen Comment
What's more important is the impact this is having on the flood of new
membership applications from both married and single men on the theory that this
is all part of God's new plan to save relationships. We've come a long ways from
the serpent in Eden.
In a National Headache Foundation survey of some 170
headache patients, 46% reported having had sex-related headaches. The survey,
conducted on the National Headache Foundation's web site during December,
included 182 people, mainly women aged 21 and older. Nearly all participants --
96% -- reported getting headaches from any cause. The same percentage said
they're sexually active.
Miranda Hitti, WebMD,
February 19, 2008 ---
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/news/20080215/headaches-from-sex
A 44 year-old man from Sittingbourne, Kent, England,
who failed his accounting exams, has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment
for urging Moslems to launch terror attacks on accountants. Malcolm Hodges, 44,
had failed an exam set by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
ten years ago, and had been arguing about it with the Association ever since.
The grudge festered over time, and Hodges widened his one-man campaign by
writing a series of letters to the British royal family, the Chancellor, and the
Prime Minister, outlining the "grave injustice" behind his low marking. Hodges'
mission changed from farcical to dangerous in November 2006, when he began
writing to UK mosques, claiming to be a follower of Osama Bin Laden.
AccountingWeb, February 26, 2008 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104702
Among the latest exploits of the United Methodist
Women’s Division is a children’s book intended to instill anti-Israel themes
among Methodist youngsters. Innocuously called, “From Palestine to Seattle;
Becoming Neighbors and Friends,” the booklet portrays Israel as an oppressor of
Palestinians while omitting all mention of terrorism. It was written by Mary
Davis, a former United Methodist missionary in “Palestine,” where she led “study
tours,” whose political content no doubt was predictable. The United Methodist
Women’s Division, with over $60 million in assets, $30 million in annual income,
and nearly 700,000 members, is one of the most powerful women’s groups in
America. Its mostly older members, strung across over 30,000 local churches,
earn money for their New York-based headquarters with bake sales, Christmas
bazaars, and church suppers. Few among them realize that their donations fund
causes of the radical left, including anti-Israel activism. In the children’s
story, a Seattle Methodist pastor just returned from “Palestine” shares a letter
from a young Arab boy in Bethlehem with his own children. The Arab boy, Tarek,
has never been to McDonald's because the closest one is in Jerusalem, and travel
there requires a pass by the Israelis. Naturally, the American children are
disturbed. In an ongoing pen pal exchange, Tarek asks the American children why
their country thinks all Palestinians are terrorists. The Americans are
embarrassed. They summon up the nerve to ask Tarek why passes are needed to
travel to Jerusalem.
Mark Tooley, "The Methodist Child
Indoctrination League," Frontpage Magazine, February 19, 2008 ---
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=F25F6DEA-B3D3-4BFB-960D-DA94B95B2EB8
Corruption and Rampant Crime: The Sad State of Higher Education in
Russia
Presidents use their positions to create fiefdoms on campus, doling out perks
to themselves and their allies. Admissions officials demand bribes to enroll
otherwise-qualified students, and professors expect money from students in
exchange for passing grades. The black-market pipeline of money and perks
thrives even as the system itself is eroding. Professors are underpaid,
textbooks are of poor quality, and buildings are in dire need of repair. Last
year 10 students died in a fire in a Moscow classroom building. The private
institution, short of money, had rented the building's lower three floors as
office space, which blocked the fire exits.
Anna Nempsova,
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 22, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i24/24a01801.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
What can we expect since there are doubts that
Vladimir Putin even read the doctoral dissertation that he himself
plagiarized ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#Celebrities
It's not likely that such a leader will fight to instill integrity and
opportunity in Russia's higher education system. Better to have bigger bombs to
blow up the world when Russia falls into more crime, despair, and ignorance.
MI6 agents have monitored secret meetings between
top Serbian officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin's anointed successor,
Dmitry Medvedev, to discuss the installation of Russian nuclear missiles to
contribute to what he told a Moscow election rally this weekend would "help to
ensure Serbian security." The president-in-waiting – no one seriously believes
any other candidate will win this coming Sunday's election – also will ensure
that President Vladimir Putin will become the nation's prime minister,
effectively remaining the real power behind Medvedev after stepping down from
the presidency.
"Putin offers nukes to Serbia Missile threat escalates as Russia
goes to polls," WorldNetDaily, February 26, 2008 ---
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57373
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on
Monday Israel would soon be destroyed by the "hands of Hezbollah", the Lebanese
group which is backed by the Islamic Republic, Fars News Agency reported. Guards
commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari made the comment in a letter to Hezbollah
leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to offer condolences after the killing of senior
guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah in a car bomb last week in Damascus. "In the
near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous existence of
Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants," Jafari
was quoted as saying. Iran does not recognize Israel and President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has often predicted the imminent demise of the Jewish state, drawing
criticism from the West which fears Iran wants to make nuclear bombs that could
threaten the region.
"Hezbollah will soon destroy Israel, says Iran Guards,"
Reuters, February 18, 2008 ---
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSBLA83745220080218
Jensen Comment
Mohammad Ali Jafari and Mary Davis should be more careful --- they might
get what they ask
for!
David Horowitz will not be appearing at the annual
meeting of the National Communication Association, which is expected to draw
thousands of professors to San Diego in November. On that fact, everyone is in
agreement. But whether he isn’t participating because he was making unreasonable
demands, because he was never invited in the first place (not totally
the truth), because the association gave in to members
who didn’t want to give him a forum, or some combination of factors is the
subject of much disagreement. . . . As for Horowitz, he said that it was
“splitting hairs” to say he hadn’t been invited. Via e-mail, he said that the
early e-mail from Hogan appeared to be an invitation. “It offers me an
honorarium, tells me who my debating partner is, etc. I took it as an
invitation. Do you think Hogan would have sent me such a letter if it was normal
for his board to then veto his proposals?” he said. Horowitz said of the turn of
events: “It is obviously a rejection of the idea of by the NCA — the idea being
that after five years David Horowitz should actually get to present his ideas to
an academic association.... The fact that no academic group has had the balls to
invite me says a lot about the ability of academic associations to discuss
important issues if a political minority wants to censor them.”
Scott Jaschik, "Communicating About
David Horowitz," Inside Higher Ed, February 19, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/19/horowitz
Jensen Comment
Although I've not been happy with some of David's comments and antics, this is
one of millions examples that political correctness still reigns supreme among
the liberal academic establishment. That establishment preaches diversity but
only to the point of not not embracing controversial conservatives or
pro-Israeli speakers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
If he'd accept the invitation, the NCA would most likely be thrilled if
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current President of Iran, would accept an invitation
to speak at this annual meeting.
Cosby's TV show about the Huxtable family, from 1984
to 1992, wasn't just a sitcom. His "post-racial" middle-class Huxtables were an
explicit attempt by him to stanch the downward pitch of black street culture. He
lost. In his current book, "Come On, People," written with psychiatrist Alvin
Poussaint, Cosby lists the grim, by-now familiar data on the social pathologies
of black males. As before, he hammers popular black culture: "The Ku Klux Klan
could not have devised a media culture as destructive." The famous Million Man
March of 1995, Cosby says, didn't make a dent. "What do record producers think
when they churn out that gangsta rap with anti-social, women-hating messages?"
He said, " Martin and Malcolm and Medgar Evers must be turning over in their
graves." For many, the pull and potency of this media-led downward mobility made
it seem an impossible situation. The book is a self-help road map to going in
another direction.
Daniel Henninger, "Obama and Race,"
The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2008; Page A16 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120356078969481875.html
Unfortunately, taxation did not come up in the
(Clinton-Obama, February 26) debate, along with other strange absences on
important issues like immigration and the government's out-of-control deficits.
Some estimates put Obama's total proposed government spending at more than $800
billion over the current federal budget. The means to pay for that spending
remains an unknown, and apparently, not a big deal to the mainstream media.
Steve Adcock, "Obama, Clinton debate the merits of big government,:
SmallGovTimes.com, February 27, 2008 ---
http://www.smallgovtimes.com/story/08feb27.obama.clinton.debate/index.html
Mideast terrorist leaders today thanked actress
Sharon Stone for claiming to Arab media the U.S. used the Sept. 11 attacks as
"pretext" for launching wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The terrorists stated
Stone's remarks, published this week in Arabic, reinforce their views that
current U.S. foreign policy is leading America toward destruction. "What Stone
said strengthens what we have been saying all along – that the Bush
administration and the American evangelical Christians who control U.S. policy
are leading America to defeat," said Muhammad Abel-Al, spokesman and senior
leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terrorist organization.
Aaron Klein, "Terrorist leaders
applaud Sharon Stone's anti-war remarks," WorldNetDaily, February 19,
2008 ---
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56828
That there's one law for everybody is an important
pillar of our social identity as a Western liberal democracy, but I think it's a
misunderstanding to suppose that that means people don't have other
affiliations, other loyalties which shape and dictate how they behave in
society, and the law needs to take some account of that, so an approach to law
which simply said, 'There is one law for everybody and that is all there is to
be said, and anything else that commands your loyalty or your allegiance is
completely irrelevant in the processes of the courts' — I think that's a bit of
a danger.
Rowan Williams (Archbishop of C, "Shariah
in Europe," Chronicle of Higher Education Chronicle Review, February 29,
2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i25/25b00401.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Rev. Williams defenders adamantly point out that this church leader of 80
million Christians is not advocating relative laws that, because one happens to
live under Sharia law while living in Europe, would allow stoning adulterer
women to death, wife beating, and raping of a woman found in the presence of a
man who is not her brother, husband, or father. However, he most definitely is
advocating relativism without attempting to draw the line as to where Muslim
women have different legal protections than Christian women. Given that he does
not, and indeed cannot, provide examples of bright line differences, we have to
wonder why he stirred up both liberals (especially feminists) and conservatives
on this matter in the first place. Indeed if Rowan Williams was not such a Bush
bashing liberal, the attacks on his legal relativism for Muslims would've been
even more dramatic in the liberal press. Perhaps this is why one of the more
liberal magazines in the U.S., The Nation, repeatedly features Rev.
Williams bashing of Iraq, Israel (his statements often skirt on the edge of
anti-Semitism), and Bush but The Nation is
virtually silent on Rev. Williams support of legal relativism for Muslim women.
Many explanations for the archbishop's statements
have already been proffered: the weakness of the Church of England, the paganism
of the British, the feebleness of Williams' intellect, the decline of the West.
At base, though, his beliefs are merely an elaborate, intellectualized version
of a commonly held, and deeply offensive, Western prejudice: Alone among all of
the world's many religious groups, Muslims living in Western countries cannot be
expected to conform to Western law — or perhaps do not deserve to be treated as
legal equals of their non-Muslim neighbors. Every time the police shrug their
shoulders when a Muslim woman complains that she has been forced to marry
against her will, every time a Western doctor tries not to notice the female
circumcisions being carried out in his hospital, they are acting in the spirit
of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Anne Applebaum, Chronicle of Higher
Education Chronicle Review, February 29, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i25/25b00401.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Mr. McCain gets a chance to question Mr. Obama's
declaration he won't be beholden to lobbyists and special interests. After Mr.
Obama's laundry list of agenda items on Tuesday night, Mr. McCain can ask why,
if Mr. Obama rejects the influence of lobbyists, has he not broken with any
lobbyists from the left fringe of the Democratic Party? Why is he doing their
bidding on a range of issues? Perhaps because he occupies the same liberal
territory as they do. The truth is that Mr. Obama is unwilling to challenge
special interests if they represent the financial and political muscle of the
Democratic left. He says yes to the lobbyists of the AFL-CIO when they demand
card-check legislation to take away the right of workers to have a secret ballot
in unionization efforts, or when they oppose trade deals. He won't break with
trial lawyers, even when they demand the ability to sue telecom companies that
make it possible for intelligence agencies to intercept communications between
terrorists abroad. And he is now going out of his way to proclaim fidelity to
the educational unions. This is a disappointment since he'd earlier indicated an
openness to education reform. Mr. Obama backs their agenda down the line, even
calling for an end to testing, which is the only way parents can know with
confidence whether their children are learning and their schools working. These
stands represent not just policy vulnerabilities, but also a real danger to Mr.
Obama's credibility and authenticity. He cannot proclaim his goal is the end of
influence for lobbies if the only influences he seeks to end are lobbies of the
center and the right.
Karl Rove, "Obama's New
Vulnerability," The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2008; Page A17 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120355939956381797.html
Barack Obama has pledged to "renew American
diplomacy." Except, apparently, when it might interfere with an endorsement from
the Teamsters. President James Hoffa bestowed the powerful union's blessing on
Mr. Obama yesterday, not so coincidentally only days after the Senator declared
his opposition to the pending U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. In a statement
inserted in the Congressional Record last week, Mr. Obama said he believes the
pact doesn't pay "proper attention" to America's "key industries and
agricultural sectors" like cars, rice and beef. Opposition to free-trade deals
is now a union litmus test, especially for the Teamsters and Service Employees
International Union, which endorsed the Senator last Friday.
"Obama's Teamster 'Diplomacy'," The Wall Street Journal,
February 21, 2008; Page A16 ---
Click Here
And now, in the most amazing trick of all, a
silver-tongued freshman senator has found a way to sell hope. To get it, you
need only give him your vote. Barack Obama is getting millions. This kind of
sale is hardly new. Organized religion has been offering a similar commodity --
salvation -- for millennia. Which is why the Obama campaign has the feel of a
religious revival with, as writer James Wolcott observed, a "salvational fervor"
and "idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and
chariot-driven by pure euphoria." . . .
Obama has an astonishingly empty paper trail. He's going around issuing
promissory notes on the future that he can't possibly redeem. Promises to heal
the world with negotiations with the likes of Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. Promises to transcend the conundrums of entitlement reform that
require real and painful trade-offs. Promises to fund his other promises by a
rapid withdrawal from an unpopular war -- with the hope, I suppose, that the
(presumed) resulting increase in American prestige would compensate for the
chaos to follow. Democrats are worried that the Obama spell will break between
the time of his nomination and the time of the election, and deny them the White
House. My guess is that he can maintain the spell just past Inauguration Day.
After which will come the awakening. It will be rude.
Charles Krauthammer, "Obama spell mesmerizing but
empty," Chicago Tribune, February 18, 2008 ---
"Inspiration vs. Substance,"by Joe Klein, Time Magazine, February 7, 2008
---
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1710721,00.html
"The Barach Blowout," by Joe Klein, Time Magazine, February 14, 2008 ---
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713497,00.html
It turns out that not only is the Mohammed al-Dura
myth a total fabrication, but the conventional wisdom about another "martyr",
the American Marxist activist Rachel Corrie, is also a total fabrication. Yes,
Virginia, the mainstream media have been caught lying again. Rachel Corrie did
not die while protecting a house about to be flattened by an Israel bulldozer.
She died while protecting an arms-smuggling tunnel, as the video available here
(http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-rachel-corrie-really-died-hint-not.html)
clearly shows.
February 22, 2008 message from Naomi Ragen
"Seems like they turned all our victories into
defeats," Tom Moorer growled. They did it on the battlefields of our own
campuses and in our newsrooms, as Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber pointed out so
astutely in "The American Challenge."
To the New York Times, in particular, it was more important to engineer our
defeat than to print the truth. Arthur Ochs
Sulzberger said he did not care if what the New York Times was reporting about
the Vietnam War was true or not. He and the New York Times were against the
Vietnam war, he said, and the paper would keep on reporting the way it had been.
Now they set out to lose another war, and Obama is their instrument. Only this
time, we don't yet have any "tigers" in place to pick up the pieces.
"New York Times' strategy for defeat," WorldNetDaily,
February 25. 2008 ---
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57239
When have either of these two candidates ever spoken
favorably about the free market, entrepreneurship, or American business and
industry? When have they ever paid due respect to the U.S. Constitution, or
praised it? To them, these institutions are evil and must be eradicated. All we
ever hear from them is how poor Americans really are and how much they need
government assistance from Democrats. Aren’t we all getting a little sick of
hearing these isolated stories of the misery of the downtrodden, of how
Americans are living hand to mouth and unable to pay for both food and medicine,
and how they’re losing their homes (that they couldn‘t afford to buy in the
first place)? Do you know anyone who fits these descriptions? I don’t. They
attempt to create a false picture of America, then offer their socialist
solutions for it. It’s the same old propaganda game of creating a false premise,
then a solution to fix it. The only people who relate to this hysteria are the
people who show up at Obama and Clinton rallies simply because they have no
place better to be, like at a job. In the case of Obama, he seems to be
advocating for only the poor black community without actually saying so, but
that is where you find the conditions he describes. His solution to the problem
is to keep them dependent on big government with the taxpayers’ money and
somehow, that will lead them to the American dream.
JR Dieckmann, Great American Journal, February 2008
---
http://www.greatamericanjournal.com/editor/archives/ObamaChangedMyMindAboutMcCain.htm
On Friday, arbitration judge Sam Cianchetti ordered
Health Net to repay that amount while providing $8.4 million in punitive damages
and $750,000 for emotional distress. "It's hard to imagine a situation more
trying than the one Bates has had to endure," Cianchetti wrote in the decision.
"The rug was pulled out from underneath, and that occurred at a time when she is
diagnosed with breast cancer, one of the leading causes of death for women."
Bates, a mother of two, said she screamed when she heard about the damage award.
"I am elated," she said . . . Health Net said it was implementing a freeze on
policy cancelations that would last until the company sets up a third-party
review panel to scrutinize cases. "Obviously we regret the way that this has
turned out, but we are intent on fixing the processes to maintain the public
trust," spokesman David Olson said. The award came a day after the Los Angeles
city attorney sued Health Net, claiming it illegally canceled the coverage of
about 1,600 patients. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo also said the company
illegally ran an incentive program in which it paid bonuses to an administrator
for meeting targets of policy cancelations . Health Net acknowledged that such a
program existed in 2002 and 2003 but was subsequently scrapped. "It's hard to
imagine a policy more reprehensible than tying bonuses to encourage the recision
of health insurance that helps keep the public well and alive," Cianchetti wrote
in the Bates decision.
Thomas Watkins, "Cut-Off Cancer Patient to Get $9M," PhysOrg,
February 24, 2008 ---
http://physorg.com/news123046583.html
Jensen Comment
Need we have to ask why Democrats are favored in the November 2008 elections?
But the principle cause for concern today is the
paralysis of the credit markets. Credit is always key to the expansion of the
economy. The collapse of confidence in credit markets is now preventing that
necessary extension of credit. The decline of credit creation includes not only
the banks but also the bond markets, hedge funds, insurance companies and mutual
funds. Securitization, leveraged buyouts and credit insurance have also
atrophied. The dysfunctional character of the credit markets means that a Fed
policy of reducing interest rates cannot be as effective in stimulating the
economy as it has been in the past. Monetary policy may simply lack traction in
the current credit environment. The collapse of the credit markets began last
summer when the subprime mortgage crisis demonstrated that financial risk of all
types had been greatly underpriced, that the market prices of complex financial
assets overstated their true values, and that the credit scores provided by
rating agencies are not to be trusted. Because market participants now lack
confidence in asset prices, they are unwilling to buy existing assets, thus
preventing current asset owners from providing credit to new borrowers. The lack
of confidence in asset prices also translates into a lack of confidence in the
creditworthiness of other financial institutions, impeding the extension of
credit to those institutions. And because financial institutions do not even
have confidence in the value of their own capital and in the potential
availability of liquidity, they are reluctant to make new lending commitments.
Martin Feldstein, "Our Economic
Dilemma, The Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2008; Page A15 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120347007609178711.html
“The New York Times — the newspaper that gave
MoveOn.org a sweetheart deal to run advertisements attacking General Petraeus —
has shown once again that it cannot exercise good journalistic judgment when it
comes to dealing with a conservative Republican,” campaign manager Rick Davis
send in an e-mail to supporters. “All I can conclude is that this is the largest
liberal newspaper in America trying to unfairly attack the integrity of the new
conservative Republican nominee for president,” said McCain adviser Charlie
Black. “There is no other good explanation for it.” McCain senior adviser Steve
Schmidt called the report “a smear … it reads like a tabloid gossip sheet.” “I
think this is going to play badly for The New York Times and John McCain is
going to be fine,” Schmidt said. The Republican National Committee even used the
story as a fundraising pitch Thursday in an e-mail to donors.
"Fit to Print? New York Times in Crosshairs for Report on McCain
and Female Lobbyist," Fox News, February 21, 2008 ---
Click Here
News organizations inevitably have an effect on the
events they cover, but good newsmen are circumspect about the line between
reporting and political advocacy. The Times's treatment of this McCain story
suggests that the desire to make an impact overcame that circumspection.
The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal,
November 22, 2008
The article had repercussions for both McCain and
The Times. He may benefit, at least in the short run, from a conservative
backlash against the “liberal” New York Times. The newspaper found itself in the
uncomfortable position of being the story as much as publishing the story, in
large part because, although it raised one of the most toxic subjects in
politics — sex — it offered readers no proof
that McCain and Iseman had a romance . . . It
was not for want of trying. Four highly respected reporters in the Washington
bureau worked for months on the story and were pressed repeatedly to get sources
on the record and to find documentary evidence like e-mail. If McCain had been
having an affair with a lobbyist seeking his help on public policy issues, and
The Times had proved it, it would have been a story of unquestionable
importance. But in the absence of a smoking gun, I asked Keller why he decided
to run what he had. “If the point of the story was to allege that McCain had an
affair with a lobbyist, we’d have owed readers more compelling evidence than the
conviction of senior staff members,” he replied.
Clark Hoyt (Public Editor
of The New York Times), "What That McCain Article Didn’t Say," The New York
Times, February 24, 2008 ---
Click Here
Jensen Comment
Whether or not this tabloid reporting/publication has a net positive or negative
impact on Senator John McCain and the Republican Party, such biased and shoddy
reporting by The New York Times sends a terrible message to schools of
journalism and communication that are desperately trying to to bring back ethics
and professionalism to the U.S. media.
We won't waste time wondering whether The Times
would've reported the peace if it had instead been about Senators Obama or
Kennedy or Schumer. What's scandalous is that it shows journalism students that
The Times has sunk to a new low by becoming worse than a tabloid rag
since it has thrown its historic reputation behind sex accusations for which it
admittedly had "no proof." It also shows that the Times will do anything to
drive the Republican party into the ground in November 2008. This includes
selling its soul and what little integrity remains after its sweet heart illegal
deal with the
MoveOn advocacy cohort!
John Stewart
cleverly makes Bush/McCain/BOP bashing part of his comedy routine.
The Times
cleverly tries to make Bush/McCain/GOP bashing part of Page 1 factual
reporting. One ceased to be funny a long time ago except among Bush/McCain/GOP
haters. The other long ceased being an unbiased role model for journalism and
communications schools in the world. It's quite all right to express opinions on
editorial pages. But is is quite another matter for a leading newspaper to show
flagrant disregard for truth and integrity on Page 1.
"Press Corps Quagmire," by William McGurn, The Wall Street Journal,
February 19, 2008; Page A19 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120338469685475857.html
When a man hangs up his byline to write
for a president, he gets more than a new job. He gets to see how the press
and pundit corps look from the other side of the notepad.
And over three years in the West Wing, you
see a few things. You see who's a straight shooter, and who's full of snark.
You see who's smart, and whose outrageous behavior would have made its way
to Drudge had it involved White House staffers instead of White House
correspondents. Most of all, you see how conventional wisdom can keep
otherwise talented reporters and commentators on the same stale storyline
long after the facts on the ground have changed.
Let me put this in context with three
contentious issues -- one economic, one cultural, and one on foreign policy.
In each case, President Bush took a clear stand. In each case, he was
accused of stupidity or stubbornness and sometimes both. In each case, the
facts on the ground increasingly bear the president out, sometimes
dramatically. Yet the beat goes on -- with no sense of the great irony that
it may be our writers and pundits who are stubbornly clinging to old
assumptions.
Start with taxes. In the first three years
of his administration, the president signed into law a series of tax cuts.
They helped families by lowering rates, doubling the child credit, and
reducing the marriage penalty. They helped small businesses, by increasing
the incentives for investment and lowering the rate at which most small
businesses pay taxes. And they put the death tax on the road to extinction.
Critics attacked on all fronts. The tax
cuts were unfair because they only helped the rich. They would blow out the
deficit, and do nothing for the economy. And when the economy began to
improve, the focus shifted to a "jobless recovery."
We now know that "jobless recovery" in
fact produced the longest period of consecutive job growth in our history.
We now know that the tax cuts that were supposed to blow a hole in the
federal budget deficit actually contributed to economic growth that has in
turn yielded record tax revenues. As for unfairness, we also know that if
the Democrats have their way and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, a family
of four with $60,000 in earnings in 2007 would see their taxes go up by
about $1,800. So who's being stubborn?
Or take stem cells. Shortly after taking
office, the president had to make a tough decision about federal funding for
embryonic stem cell research that holds out hope for life-saving treatments.
The problem was that getting the stem cells requires destroying embryos. In
July 2001, Mr. Bush announced a reasonable compromise. The solution was that
the federal government would support embryonic stem cell research, but would
not support the creation of life just to destroy it.
For more than six years, the critics have
reacted by suggesting America was regressing into a new Dark Ages. "An act
of self-serving political Houdinism" said one columnist. A later editorial
after a presidential veto ran under the headline "The President's Stem Cell
Theology." The science reporter for ABC News put it this way: "We talk to a
lot of scientists who believe nothing will change until the next
inauguration in 2009."
Well, we didn't have to wait until 2009
for something to change. Last November, scientists discovered a way to
reprogram adult skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. In other words,
we now have the potential to cultivate adult cells with the same pluripotent
qualities that make embryonic cells so valuable -- and without having to
destroy human life. That sure sounds like a welcome development. So let me
ask: How many stories or editorials have you read giving the president his
due?
Finally there is Iraq. By the end of 2006,
sectarian violence was tearing Iraq apart, the terrorists were getting away
with spectacular acts of murder, and our strategy plainly was not working.
For a man said to resist unpleasant truths, the president acted boldly. He
replaced his defense secretary, replaced his commanders on the ground, and
completely overhauled his strategy. Granted, it would have been better had
it come earlier. But it was a tough thing to do, he did it -- and he did it
knowing full well that the critics would jump all over him.
The president announced the surge in a
nationally televised address in January 2007. A conservative columnist
accused the president of offering nothing but "salesmanship and spin." A
cable TV host went on a rant declaring "the plan fails militarily, the plan
fails symbolically, the plan fails politically." Columnists and commentators
either hedged their bets or predicted disaster ahead, with allusions to
Vietnam sprinkled in for good measure.
Yet the surge went ahead. In Anbar
Province, Marines were sent in to take advantage of a popular Sunni revolt
against al Qaeda -- and by April the capital city of Ramadi was being taken
back from the terrorists. By September, U.S. and Iraqi forces were clearing
out Baquba, a one-time al Qaeda town in Diyala Province. And though Gen.
David Petraeus says that the gains can still be reversed, sectarian killings
are down, civilian deaths are down, and the people of Baghdad are getting a
taste of normal life. Surely the president deserves a little credit here.
Of course, if you are one of those experts
who reassured us that a "well managed defeat" in Iraq was the way for
America to go, you don't like hearing the president use plain words like
"win" and "victory." Then again, you're not the audience George W. Bush
worries about. During one of my first meetings in the Oval Office, the
president told me and my fellow speechwriters that we must always be mindful
of how his words would sound to the enemy -- and how they would sound to the
young Marine risking his life against that enemy in some dusty town in
Afghanistan or Iraq.
President Bush hasn't always been right.
But he's been right on the things that matter most, and he's been willing to
take the heat. I, for one, admire him for it.
Question
Where is there a simple explanation of the transition from analog TV to HDTV in
early 2009?
If I still want to use my faithful analog set in 2009 should I get a free coupon
from Uncle Sam and buy a converter box?
You only need an Analog-to-Digital converter box if you want to still have
your old analog set fed by an antenna after February 17, 2009. Chances are that
you're already connected to cable or a satellite dish such that you can still
use your old analog set without adding the Analog-to-Digital converter. HDTV
users will supposedly have a better picture, but if you only rarely watch
television you probably don't care a cat's patoot about better quality and
fatter people on your HDTV screen.
If you do use an antenna so you can watch free television without having to
pay a monthly free for cable or satellite reception, you must buy a converter
box. Even then you may have a somewhat smaller set of channels have decent
reception. Life can be bummer in the digital age. You can find out more about
coupons from the government that will save you money if you decide you want a
converter box ---
http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html
Link answer forwarded by David Fordham
"DTV transition from analog to digital TV: No, you don't need to buy a new
TV next February," by David Katzmaier, C|Net, February 20, 2008 ---
http://reviews.cnet.com/dtv-transition/?tag=links%3bfeature&tag=nl.e501
On February 17, 2009, millions of TVs across the
U.S. will go blank, displaying the snowy screen that for decades has meant
the lack of a TV signal. No matter which channel their owners tune to, or
how long they wait, the snow will remain. When this happens, thousands of
Americans will ask their local TV station, landlord, caregiver, or
tech-savvy relative for an explanation. If the person they ask happens to be
you, this guide will give you the answers. If you happen to be someone who
watches analog TV using an antenna, read on to find out how you can save
your old TV from a snowy death for about $20 or less.
Continued in article
Question
Why isn't this the best time to buy a new Blu-ray DVD player/recorder even
though it will be the new standard for movies on DVD disks?
Do I need to buy a new Blu-ray DVD drive for my computer?
Chances are the optical drive in your computer is now a CD drive or a data
DVD (old-style) drive that you can use to burn files in CD or DVD blanks. The
relatively cheap blanks that you use now will be sold for years to come such
that you don't have to rush into anything yet. Those drives wouldn't play HD-DVD
or Blu-ray movies, but if that hasn't bothered you up to now, why rush out to
buy a new computer or an external Blu-ray drive for your computer. Not many of
us are really into watching full-length movies on our computers.
If you're buying a new HDTV set, then by all means do not buy a now obsolete
HD-DVD drive for your new television set. You will probably eventually want a
Blu-ray DVD drive but shop around and perhaps wait until prices of Blu-ray
drives and recorders are more reasonable. Although you can notify NetFlix or
Blockbuster to send you Blu-ray rental movies, you can continue renting the
disks you're renting at the moment. It's not necessary jump immediately into Blu-ray
madness.
The most troublesome aspect of this Blu-ray business for colleges will be the
need to install Blu-ray drives in electronic classrooms. It's not necessary to
do so in the next few months, but by Fall of 2008 most classrooms will probably
have shiny new Blu-ray drives so professors can show the very latest Hollywood
crap or segments thereof to students.
Richard Campbell forwarded this sobering link about timing to buy a Blu-ray
DVD player---
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9864122-1.html
You can get
answers from the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Ray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-DVD
Technical ---
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hd-dvd3.htm
More than you ever wanted to know about DVD ---
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
"Flash memory prices to plummet, analysts say: The weak U.S.
economy, plus falling demand and a flooded market, should push NAND flash prices
down this year," by Agam Shah, PC World via The Washington Post,
February 22, 2008 ---
Click Here
Question
What department store chains rank highest and lowest in the University of
Michigan customer service update research?
"Unhappy Returns," by Jennifer Waters, Money Magazine, February 2007
---
http://money.aol.com/marketwatch/general/_a/unhappy-returns/20080222112709990001
The University of Michigan's quarterly American
Customer Satisfaction index, released this week, dipped to 74.9 on the
100-point scale, off 0.4 from the third quarter. That was the second
straight quarterly drop and marked the lowest score in 2007 and is a
harbinger of what's ahead. "When customer satisfaction declines, consumers
have less enthusiasm for repeating experiences that no longer provide the
same gratification," said Claes Fornell, director of the Donald C. Cook
Professor of Business Administration and head of the ACSI.
. . .
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, also is the
worst rated among department and discount stores, according to the ACSI. Its
score fell 6% to 68, well below the industry average of 77 and at an
all-time low.
"Competing on price is no longer enough to offset
lagging quality," Fornell said.
Meanwhile, deep discounter
Nordstrom, long known for its strong customer
service and high-quality merchandise, led all department and discount stores
at 80, followed by Kohl's at 79.
Home Depot, the No. 1 home-improvement retailer is
also among the lowest scorers on the index., coming in at 67. It's arch
rival Lowe's climbed 1% to 75, widening the gap between the two.
Elsewhere, the gap was narrowed between Best Buy
and Circuit City. Best Buy's score slid 3% to 73 while Circuit City rose 3%
to 71.
Among specialty retailers, Barnes & Noble was in
the lead at 83 with Borders Group and Costco tying at second with scores of
81.
Continued in article
"Countrywide Cancels Ski Trip Amid Criticism," by James R. Hagerty,
The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2008; Page A16 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120394568109390375.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Countrywide Financial Corp., reacting to negative
publicity, canceled plans to host a ski trip this week for about 30 mortgage
bankers at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch ski resort in Avon, Colo., a
spokesman said.
The cancellation comes as the nation's No. 1
mortgage lender by loan volume responds to criticism of its lending
practices, which have led to a surge of home foreclosures.
Countrywide's chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, is
scheduled to appear Thursday at a hearing of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, headed by California Democrat Henry Waxman, who
is raising questions about compensation packages for top executives of
companies involved in the mortgage crisis.
A Countrywide spokesman, referring to the planned
ski trip, said the company had hosted similar meetings with business
partners and clients for years, but that "in light of recent events, we have
decided to cancel all such gatherings for the remainder of the year."
The list price for a regular room on a weekday
night at the Ritz in Avon starts at $725. But the Countrywide spokesman said
the lender would have paid "much less" than that.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on banking scandals are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#InvestmentBanking
Question
What Internet sites help you compare neighboring K-12 schools?
"Grading Neighborhood Schools: Web Sites Compare A Variety of Data, Looking
Beyond Scores," by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal, February
20, 2008; Page D6 ---
I performed various school queries
using
Education.com
Inc., GreatSchools Inc.'s
GreatSchools.net and
SchoolMatters.com by typing in a ZIP Code, city,
district or school name. Overall, GreatSchools and Education.com offered the
most content-packed environments, loading their sites with related articles
and offering community feedback on education-related issues by way of blog
posts or surveys. And though GreatSchools is 10 years older than
Education.com, which made its debut in June, the latter has a broader
variety of content and considers its SchoolFinder feature -- newly available
as of today -- just a small part of the site.
Both Education.com and
GreatSchools.net base a good portion of their data on information gathered
by the Department of Education and the National Center for Education
Statistics, the government entity that collects and analyzes data related to
education.
SchoolMatters.com, a service of
Standard & Poor's, is more bare-bones, containing quick statistical
comparisons of schools. (S&P is a unit of McGraw-Hill Cos.) This site gets
its content from various sources, including state departments of education,
private research firms, the Census and National Public Education Finance
Survey. This is evidenced by lists, charts and pie graphs that would make
Ross Perot proud. I learned about where my alma mater high school got its
district revenue in 2005: 83% was local, 15% was state and 2% was federal.
But I couldn't find district financial information for more recent years on
the site.
All three sites base at least some
school-evaluation results on test scores, a point that some of their users
critique. Parents and teachers, alike, point out that testing doesn't always
paint an accurate picture of a school and can be skewed by various
unacknowledged factors, such as the number of students with disabilities.
Education.com's SchoolFinder feature is starting
with roughly 47,000 schools in 10 states: California, Texas, New York,
Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and Georgia. In
about two months, the site hopes to have data for all states, totaling about
60,000 public and charter schools. I was granted early access to
SchoolFinder, but only Michigan was totally finished during my testing.
SchoolFinder lets you narrow your results by type
(public or charter), student-to-teacher ratio, school size or Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP), a measurement used to determine each school's annual
progress. Search results showed specific details on teachers that I didn't
see on the other sites, such as how many teachers were fully credentialed in
a particular school and the average years of experience held by a school's
teachers.
The rest of the Education.com site contains over
4,000 articles written by well-known education sources like the New York
University Child Study Center, Reading is Fundamental and the Autism Society
of America. It also contains a Web magazine and a rather involved
discussion-board community where members can ask questions of like-minded
parents and the site's experts, who respond with advice and suggestions of
articles that might be helpful.
Private schools aren't required to release test
scores, student or teacher statistics, so none of the sites had as much data
on private schools. However, GreatSchools.net at least offered basic results
for most private-school queries that I performed, such as a search for
Salesianum School in Delaware (where a friend of mine attended) that
returned the school's address, a list of the Advanced Placement exams it
offered from 2006 to 2007 and six rave reviews from parents and former
students.
GreatSchools.net makes it easy to compare schools,
even without knowing specific names. After finding a school, I was able to
easily compare that school with others in the geographic area or school
district -- using a chart with numerous results on one screen. After
entering my email address, I saved schools to My School List for later
reference.
I couldn't find each school's AYP listed on
GreatSchools.net, though these data were on Education.com and
SchoolMatters.com.
SchoolMatters.com doesn't provide articles, online
magazines or community forums. Instead, it spits out data -- and lots of it.
A search for "Philadelphia" returned 324 schools in a neat comparison chart
that could, with one click, be sorted by grade level, reading test scores,
math test scores or students per teacher. (The Julia R. Masterman Secondary
School had the best reading and math test scores in Philadelphia, according
to the site.)
SchoolMatters.com didn't have nearly as much user
feedback as Education.com or GreatSchools.net. But stats like a school's
student demographics, household income distribution and the district's
population age distribution were accessible thanks to colorful pie charts.
These three sites provide a good overall idea of
what certain schools can offer, though GreatSchools.net seems to have the
richest content in its school comparison section. Education.com excels as a
general education site and will be a comfort to parents in search of
reliable advice. Its newly added SchoolFinder, while it's in early stages
now, will only improve this resource for parents and students.
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Question
What features can you find on the new IBM ThinkPad X300 that you won't find on
MacBook Air?
I've been testing the ThinkPad X300
and I have found it to be a solid, innovative laptop that will be perfect for
many mobile PC users. It isn't as sexy or inexpensive as the MacBook Air, but it
has numerous features the Apple lacks, especially a wide array of ports and
connectivity options, a built-in DVD drive and a removable battery.I can
recommend the X300 for road warriors without hesitation, provided they can live
with its two biggest downsides: a relatively paltry file-storage capacity and a
hefty price tag. This ThinkPad starts at $2,476 for a stripped-down model and at
$2,799 for a preconfigured retail version with a half-size battery. The
configuration I expect to be the most popular, with a full-size battery and DVD
drive, is about $3,000.The key factor in both of these downsides is the
solid-state drive, or SSD, which replaces the hard disk. The SSD is fast and
rugged, but today it can hold only a cramped 64 gigabytes of files and is very
costly. Apple offers a MacBook Air version with the same solid-state drive for a
similar high price. But Apple also has a much more affordable $1,799 model with
an 80-gigabyte standard hard disk. Lenovo doesn't.
Walter S. Mossberg, "Price May Be Steep, But Thin ThinkPad Has Abundant
Features," The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2008; Page B1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120355033462481317.html
Question
Where can a college turn for course management software when the college feels
like Blackboard is a monopoly rip-off and Moodle is too dependent upon open
source innovations and maintenance?
Before reading this module you may want to first read about Blackboard and
Moodle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Blackboard.htm
Richard Campbell sent a link to the site below and mentioned that this may be
Microsoft's bit to compete with Blackboard.
Microsoft Learning Gateway Community ---
http://www.learninggateway.net/default.aspx
Microsoft Learning Gateway (MLG) is a powerful,
extensible suite of features designed to help schools meet their priorities
using a scalable, cost-effective framework. By deploying a Learning Gateway
solution, you can give students personalized learning portals that bring
together everything they need to support their classes. Password-protected
access can be extended to parents, providing up-to-the-minute information on
students’ attendance, grades, assignments, timetables, and upcoming events.
Administrators are provided with a secure, personalized interface from which
they can improve planning and follow-through and make effective decisions.
Senior IT decision makers are better equipped to analyze data and report key
information to governors, regulators, ministries, and other key agencies.
Whether your institution adopts a top-down or
bottom-up approach, you can deploy a Learning Gateway framework that can
support how you want to progress with the flexibility to accommodate later
developments. This means your investments are future-proofed, even during
times of rapid change. Click on the links below to learn much more about the
capabilities of MLG when combined with partner solutions. Afterwards,
contact a Microsoft partner who can customize Learning Gateway components
into solutions tailored to meet your needs.
Jensen Comment
Happily it's the enormously wealthy Microsoft making this move. Any company
making such a move is likely to be sued by Blackboard since Blackboard is now
claiming it has a patent on everything connected with course management and
distance education. We can hope and pray that Microsoft will spend whatever
needed to end these monopoly visions of Blackboard.
"Jury
Sides With Blackboard in Patent Case," by
Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, February 25, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/25/blackboard
A federal jury in Texas on Friday awarded the
learning services giant Blackboard $3.1 million in its patent infringement
lawsuit against a much smaller competitor, adding a new layer of complexity
and uncertainty to a complex, uncertain market for higher education learning
management systems.
The July 2006 lawsuit, closely watched (and
much-derided by many) in the higher education technology world, accused the
Canadian company Desire2Learn of infringing dozens of Blackboard patents for
online course management and e-learning technologies. Blackboard sought $17
million in damages and an injunction barring Desire2Learn from continuing to
infringe the patent. Blackboard
came under heavy fire
from campus technology officials, including a
rare rebuke from Educause, higher education’s main
technology association, for asserting the company’s patent rights to
technologies that many argued were simple and longstanding technologies in
wide use by corporate and open source learning systems.
After a two-week trial in Lufkin, Tex., and just a
few hours of deliberation, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Texas (which is seen as being friendly to patent holders) agreed
with Blackboard that Desire2Learn’s learning platform uses technologies for
which Blackboard received U.S. patents in January 2006. But its verdict gave
the company far less than it was asking for, awarding Blackboard $2.5
million for lost profits and $630,000 in royalties.
In addition, the verdict allows the company to
petition the judge in the case, Ron Clark, for an injunction against further
patent infringement that would force Desire2Learn either to alter its
products or to stop selling them to new customers in the United States.
In a statement via e-mail (but not posted on the
company’s Web site), Blackboard’s president and CEO, Michael Chasen, said
officials were “pleased that the jury recognized the importance of our
contribution to e-Learning. We look forward to continuing to innovate and
invest in new technologies that help education institutions around the globe
improve teaching and learning.”
The statement also contained a statement in which
Blackboard’s chief legal officer, Matthew Small, appeared to reiterate to
fearful supporters of open source learning systems (such as Moodle and
Sakai) that the company did not plan to pursue similar infringement claims
against non-commercial competitors. “We also continue to stand behind our
Patent Pledge which covers this patent and reflects our ongoing commitment
to interoperating with and supporting the evolution of open source and
home-grown systems,” Small said.
Desire2Learn officials, in
a letter
to customers, expressed disappointment with the
jury verdict, but vowed to continue to oppose Blackboard’s patent
enforcement efforts, not only to “defend ourselves vigorously” but to “stand
up against Blackboard ... in the best interest of the entire educational
community,” in the words of John Baker, the company’s president and CEO.
Desire2Learn noted that the jury’s verdict was only one step in a
multipronged process, that will include not just the likelihood of legal
appeals but a continuing review of the legitimacy of Desire2Learn’s patents
by the U.S. Patent Office.
The blogosphere, which tilts heavily against
Blackboard on virtually any and all issues, took a generally dim view of the
jury’s verdict. Some commentators
sought to
play down the significance of the jury’s verdict,
noting that it gave Blackboard less than it had sought and that
Desire2Learn’s patent is still under review by the U.S. patent office.
But others expressed fear that Blackboard would
soon go after other commercial learning management software providers like
Angel, and wondered whether Blackboard would abide by its pledge not
to take aim at the open source systems that appear to be gaining ground
against Blackboard, especially Moodle. Commentators generally agreed that
the implications of the case won’t be clear for some time.
“It will take weeks, if not months, to sort out the
fallout from the
jury ruling yesterday in the Blackboard Inc. v.
Desire2learn Inc. case,” Alfred H. Essa, associate vice chancellor and
deputy chief information officer of the Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities system, wrote
on his blog The Nose. “Although all is not
lost, this is a crushing blow to Desire2Learn, one of the few remaining
commercial competitors to Blackboard in the higher education LMS market.”
You can read more about the Blackboard and its horrid monopolist
tendencies at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Blackboard.htm
Despite Popularity, Researcher Finds Not Everyone Can
Successfully Learn Through Online Courses
PhysOrg, February 25, 2008 ---
http://physorg.com/news123168113.html
Since the
1990s, online courses have provided an opportunity for busy adults to
continue their education by completing courses in the comfort of their own
homes. However, this may not be the best solution for everyone. A researcher
at the University of Missouri has found some students may find success in
these types of courses more easily than others.
Shawna L. Strickland, clinical assistant professor
in the MU School of Health Professions, studied the demographics and
personality types of distance learners.
“Correlations between learning styles and success
in distance education have shown to be inconclusive,” Strickland said.
“However, one common theme reappears: the successful traits of a distance
learner are similar to the successful traits of an adult learner in
traditional educational settings.”
With a mere 30 percent of distance learners
actually completing their courses, learning more about the characteristics
of these students would help educators structure online courses to be as
beneficial as possible. Considering the lack of institutional support and
isolation involved in the nature of online courses, success in these courses
requires a person that is determined and responsible, Strickland said.
“The success of distance learning is dependent on
communication among the learner, his or her peers and the instructor,”
Strickland said. “To encourage success in distance learning, it is necessary
to evaluate each individual’s needs on a case-by-case basis.”
One trait that aids in distance learning is related
to personality type. Strickland found those with quiet, introverted
personalities are more likely to feel comfortable with online learning
courses. Shy individuals have a tendency to be uninvolved in the typical
classroom setting. Online courses allow them to complete work on their own
with a degree of anonymity.
“Distance learning allows the learner to overcome
traditional barriers to learning such as location, disabilities, time
constraints and familial obligations,” Strickland said. “However, not every
learner will be successful in a distance learning environment.”
The study – “Understanding Successful
Characteristics of Adult Learners” – was published in the most recent
edition of Respiratory Care Education Annual.
Jensen Comment
The source of this publication is rather unusual and surprising ---
Respiratory Care Education Annual.
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning include the following links:
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
A federal jury in Texas ruled this afternoon in
favor of Blackboard Inc., the nation’s leading online provider of
course-management software, in its
patent-infringement
lawsuit against Desire2Learn Inc.
Blackboard sued the smaller Canadian-based company
in 2006, asserting that it had
infringed a
patent that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
had granted Blackboard that year. As a result, the larger company said,
Desire2Learn had taken away customers that should have been Blackboard’s.
Desire2Learn, which has its headquarters in
Kitchener, Ontario, argued that Blackboard’s patent was invalid and should
never have been granted in the first place. Lawyers for the company said
that Blackboard officials were aware of similar technology, or what’s known
as “prior art,” that existed before it filed its patent application, and
that the company had failed to divulge that information to the patent
office.
The jury, which began deliberating just before noon
on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Lufkin, Tex., announced its
verdict this afternoon. The case has been closely watched by
campus-technology officials, many of whom feared that a win by Blackboard
could stifle innovation and leave colleges and course-management software
providers vulnerable to more legal challenges by Blackboard.
Drop Patent, Educause Urges Blackboard
The leaders of higher education’s main technology
association have written a powerfully worded letter urging Blackboard to
relinquish the rights it gained under a
controversial patent of online learning
technologies in the public domain and to drop a patent infringement lawsuit it
filed in August against a Canadian competitor, Desire2Learn.
Doug Lederman, "Drop Patent, Educause Urges Blackboard," Inside Higher Ed,
October 27, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/27/educause
Bob Jensen's threads on the history of course management software are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm
Scribd Wants to Become the YouTube for Documents
---
http://www.scribd.com/categories
It has a long way to go, although it now has over 350,000 archived documents ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribd
There are many tutorials such as those in basic accounting.
Borrowing a page from the popular video-sharing
site YouTube, a new online service lets people upload and share their papers
or entire books via a social-network interface. But will a format that works
for videos translate to documents?
It’s called
iPaper,
and it uses a Flash-based document reader that can be
embedded into a Web page. The experience of reading neatly formatted text
inside a fixed box feels a bit like using an old microfilm reader, except
that you can search the documents or e-mail them to friends.
The company behind the technology, Scribd, also
offers a
library of iPaper documents and invites users to
set up an account to post their own written works. And, just like on
YouTube, users can comment about each document, give it a rating, and view
related works.
Also like on YouTube, some of the most popular
items in the collection are on the lighter side. One document that is in the
top 10 “most viewed” is called
“It seems this essay was written while the guy was high, hilarious!”
It is a seven-page paper that appears to have been
written for a college course but is full of salty language. The document
includes the written comments of the professor who graded it, and it ends
with a handwritten note: “please see after class to discuss your paper.”
There’s plenty of serious material on the site, too
— like the
Iraq Study Group Report and
an Educause report about the future of technology at colleges.
Bob Jensen's threads on free online documents are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Obama Does Not Think Much of Professors Who Sell Their Own Learning
Materials to Students
If Barack Obama is elected president, students upset
about textbook prices may have an ally. While he hasn’t proposed any legislation
on the topic, he used an appearance Friday at the University of Texas-Pan
American to criticize the way professors benefit from writing expensive texts.
The
Chicago Tribune quoted him as saying: “Books are a big
scam. I taught law at the University of Chicago for 10 years, and one of the
biggest scams is law professors write their own textbooks and then assign it to
their students. They make a mint. It’s a huge racket.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in a
discussion in which Obama reiterated his criticism of private student loans, he
also urged students to be careful about their own spending. “Just be careful
about those credit cards, all right? Don’t eat out as much,” the Journal quoted
him saying.
Inside Higher Ed, February 25, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/25/qt
Commercial Scholarly Journals and Oligopoly Publishers Are Ripping Off
Libraries, and Scholars, Authors, and Students ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#ScholarlyJournals
Questions
Will we soon be able to lecture without opening our mouths?
Can you send a "relational" database file to a friend by simply shaking hands?
Is this the beginning of a whole new definition of human "relationships?"
Can the message of a hug be digital and unambiguous?
New magic in a kiss or two?
Does your database have halitosis or dirty fingernails or a flu virus?
I'd better stop asking questions about this before I get into big trouble!
Japanese firm harnesses the power of human touch
They say you can tell a lot from a handshake. But while
it's usually guesswork, the power of human touch will soon be used in Japan to
transmit data. Telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) is
planning a commercial launch of a system to enter rooms that frees users from
the trouble of rummaging in their pockets or handbags for ID cards or keys. It
uses technology to turn the surface of the human body itself into a means of
data transmission. As data travels through the user's clothing, handbag or
shoes, anyone carrying a special card can unlock the door simply by touching the
knob or standing on a particular spot without taking the card out. "In everyday
life, you're always touching things. Even if you are standing, you are stepping
on something," research engineer Mitsuru Shinagawa told AFP. "These simple
touches can result in communication," said Shinagawa, senior research engineer
at the company's NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories. He said future
applications could include a walk-through ticket gate, a cabinet that opens only
to authorised people and a television control that automatically chooses
favourite programmes.
PhysOrg, February 21, 2008 ---
http://physorg.com/news122793751.html
Bob Jensen's threads on ubiquitous computing are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ubiquit.htm
The Five Senses of the Future: Threads on the Networking of the Five
Senses (Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, and Taste) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/senses.htm
Barbra Streisand - He Touched Me (1967) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO-wPOgVtqg
Question
This is some of the best material ever for legal-writer John Grisham ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grisham
But will he have the courage to venture into this ethical snakepit?
"Lawsuit, Inc.," The Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2008; Page A14
---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120389878913889385.html
Should state Attorneys General be able to outsource
their legal work to for-profit tort lawyers, who then funnel a share of
their winnings back to the AGs? That's become a sleazy practice in many
states, and it is finally coming under scrutiny -- notably in Mississippi,
home of Dickie Scruggs, Attorney General Jim Hood, and other legal pillars.
The Mississippi Senate recently passed a bill
requiring Mr. Hood to pursue competitive bidding before signing contracts of
more than $500,000 with private lawyers. The legislation also requires a
review board to examine contracts, and limits contingency fees to $1
million. Mr. Hood is trying to block the law in the state House, and no
wonder considering how sweet this business has been for him and his legal
pals.
We've recently examined documents from the AG's
office detailing which law firms he has retained. We then cross-referenced
those names with campaign finance records. The results show that some of Mr.
Hood's largest campaign donors are the very firms to which he's awarded the
most lucrative state contracts.
The documents show Mr. Hood has retained at least
27 firms as outside counsel to pursue at least 20 state lawsuits over five
years. The law firms are thus able to employ the full power of the state on
their behalf, while Mr. Hood can multiply the number of targets.
Those targets are invariably deep corporate
pockets: Eli Lilly, State Farm, Coca-Cola, Merck, Boston Scientific, Vioxx
and others. The vast majority of the legal contracts were awarded on a
contingency fee basis, meaning the law firm is entitled to a big percentage
of any money that it can wring from defendants. The amounts can be rich,
such as the $14 million payout that lawyer Joey Langston shared with the
Lundy, Davis firm in an MCI/WorldCom settlement.
These firms are only too happy to return the favor
to Mr. Hood via campaign contributions. Campaign finance records show that
these 27 law firms -- or partners in those firms -- made $543,000 in
itemized campaign contributions to Mr. Hood over the past two election
cycles.
The firm of Pittman, Germany, Roberts & Welsh was
hired by Mr. Hood on a contingency basis to prosecute State Farm. According
to finance documents, partner Crymes Pittman donated $68,570 to Mr. Hood's
campaign, and other Pittman partners chipped in $33,500 more.
Partners in the Langston Law Firm gave more than
$130,000 to elect Mr. Hood, having been retained to sue Eli Lilly. Lead
partner Joey Langston has separately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
corruptly influence a judge.
Among others: The Wolf Popper firm from New York
was retained to pursue Sonus Networks, a telecommunications firm; Wolf
Popper and its partners gave $27,500 to Mr. Hood's campaign. Bernstein,
Litowitz sued at least four different companies for the AG, and the firm and
its partners chipped in $41,500. Partners at Schiffren, Barroway went after
Coca-Cola and Viacom, and donated $37,500.
Then there are the law firms that have piggybacked
their class action suits on Mr. Hood's state prosecutions. Mr. Scruggs and
his Katrina litigation partners realized a nearly $80 million windfall after
Mr. Hood used his powers to pressure State Farm into settling both the state
and Scruggs suits. Mr. Scruggs gave $33,000 to Mr. Hood in the 2007 election
cycle. (Mr. Scruggs and his son Zach have been indicted in an unrelated
bribery case, and claim to be innocent.) David Nutt, a partner in Mr.
Scruggs's Katrina litigation, also gave $25,500 to Mr. Hood's campaign last
year.
The Mississippi AG has also benefited from the
national network of trial lawyers and its ability to funnel money into the
state. We've examined finance records of the Democratic Attorneys General
Association, a so-called 527 group that helps elect liberal prosecutors. In
2007, law firms that have benefited from Mr. Hood gave the organization
$572,000, and in turn the group wrote campaign checks in 2007 to Mr. Hood
for $550,000. Guess who supplied no less than $400,000 to the group? Messrs.
Scruggs and Langston.
Add all of this up, and in 2007 alone Mr. Hood
received some $790,000 from partners and law firms that have benefited
financially from his office. That is more than half of all of Mr. Hood's
itemized contributions for 2007.
This kind of quid pro quo is legal in Mississippi
and most other states. However, if this kind of sweetheart arrangement
existed between a public official and business interests, you can bet Mr.
Hood would be screaming about corruption. Yet Mr. Hood and his trial bar
partners are fighting even Mississippi's modest attempt to require more
transparency in their contracts. The AG says it's all part of a plot to
undermine his attempts to "recoup the taxpayers' money from corporate
wrongdoers."
The real issue is the way this AG-tort bar mutual
financial interest creates perverse incentives that skew the cause of
justice. A decision to prosecute is an awesome power, and it ought to be
motivated by evidence and the law, not by the profit motives of private tort
lawyers and the campaign needs of an ambitious Attorney General. Government
is supposed to act on behalf of the public interest, not for the personal
profit of trial lawyers. The t