Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Brain in Spain on the Table Leaves a Stain.

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Lawyers lasso another live one:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/us-neuroscience-crime-idUSBRE87S07020120829

Monday, August 20, 2012

Arctic Icepack Fails, All Hands Lost on Board SS Maunder Minimum

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We seems to be wandering away from the Maunder Minimum:
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1 br="br"> 2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 821 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
Update 18 Aug 2012


I wonder if it is cheaper for the Chinese to ships goods via rail across the Eurasian land mass, or go by sea?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/17/us-china-environment-idUSBRE87G0P820120817

The wandering Chinese pulled into port in Iceland, across the Arctic Circle route, as the Maunder Minimum Mongers have experienced a complete meltdown..

Romney , Ryan, and Arithmetic MegaFail!

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Ryan's message to the elderly:

"Romney's choice of Ryan as his running mate has put a spotlight on the Wisconsin congressman's best-known achievement - a budget plan that would slash Medicare's projected costs by converting it to a program that provides limited subsidies to buy coverage.


But on the campaign trail, Ryan has moved away from his plan to emphasize less contentious proposals by Romney.

Talk of shrinking the health program for the elderly could lose votes in the November 6 election in the hotly contested state of Florida, home to the highest concentration of retirees in the country.

"Their plan would put Medicare on track to be ended as we know it," President Barack Obama said to a crowd of about 2,300 at a campaign event on Saturday in Windham, New Hampshire.
"You'd think they'd avoid talking about Medicare given the fact that both of them have proposed to voucherize the Medicare system. I guess they figure the best defense is to try to go on offense," Obama said.

MEDICARE CUTS

Polls show Romney and Obama running neck-and-neck in Florida, where the cliffhanger 2000 presidential election was decided.

Republicans accuse Obama of cutting $716 billion from Medicare to pay for the healthcare overhaul law that the Democratic president signed in 2010.

But Ryan's plan also would cut that money from Medicare, even as he proposes repealing the broader healthcare law. Romney says he would keep those funds for Medicare.

Ryan talked on Saturday about his grandmother who had Alzheimer's disease and moved in with him and his mother when he was in high school.

"Medicare was there for our family, for my grandma when we needed it then. And Medicare is there for my mom, when she needs it now. And we have to keep that guarantee," he said.

"But in order to make sure that we can guarantee that promise for my mom's generation, for those baby boomers who are retiring every day, we must reform it for my generation.""



Reuters 8/18/2012

Friday, August 10, 2012

Response to Gregory Goodknight

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That would be B.A. plus 90 units, 18 of which were in computer science for educator classes, plus four years experience selling hardware and software, and experience with computing dating back to 1965, look up Keachie and Goines, but remember who really figured out the application Goines miss-remembers as his own. I figured out how it would be useful,and explained it to him and the rest to get the manpower to enter the data.
Poor GoodNuggets. If it doesn't come stamped with an official degree, it can't possibly work. The Wright Brothers never attended an aeronautical school, so of course they couldn't fly. Trust me L.W., if politicALLY CORRECT SFUSD could have found anyone one other than a white male who even had the slightest clue as to how to connect and operate computers, they would have. Essentially, I was both the pick of the litter, and the only one applying, and in fact was invited to apply by my first principal, when he found out what I knew. If you had ANY real concerns about public education, YOU could have gone and gotten a credential and brought a lot to the classroom. Was the pay scale too low for you? Was the work too degrading for a Harvey Mudd graduate? Why didn't you step up to the plate then, instead of being such an _______ now?
As for what I taught, it was initially BASIC and Pascal, and a couple of computer literacy courses, using MS Works, and some early multimedia items I was able to get donated. I also wrote grants and got some Fischer Technics robotic kits donated, which the kids loved. In time BASIC was replaced by C++. Of course times have changed, and now the curriculum looks like: http://lhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1275747746574 and I believe a teacher has continued the robotics side of things, and has sent a team or two out into the national competitions.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/education/2012/05/robotics-spark-youths-math-science-interests
In reading this article it warms the cockles of my heart to see that an idea I proposed over 20 years ago has finally come to fruition. They've established a school on Treasure Island for the ghetto kids to have a chance to completely leave the "hood" and feel free to experience a brand new lifestyle. I originally suggested ferries to get them there, but buses are fine.
Way back when, before events derailed the train, I would have gone on to finish the MA in anthro and then gone on for a doctorate, specializing in ethnographic film making, and in a way, I'm doing that today, just locally. I am proud of the students I gave a good start to, and the countless hours I spent learning on the job, over and beyond the full time job of teaching, in order to advance our kids. When it comes time up at the Pearly Gates, I have no qualms about whether or not my life was well spent. He who spends his time constantly belittling others, may not be so confident. A public apology from HUWLW Greg Gregory Goodknight is still in order (and he insists on adding to the list daily), or those nuggets will roll after him forever.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Higher Ed in California, a History, California Photo Achives

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Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], CSU Public Affairs Photo Collection, Courtesy of the Department of Archives and Special Collections. University Library. California State University, Dominguez Hills.
History
"Don't ever dare to take your college as a matter of course--because, as with freedom and democracy, many people you'll never know...have broken their hearts to give it to you."
-Dorothy Donahoe
In the 1959 session of the California legislature, twenty-three bills, three resolutions, and two constitutional amendments were introduced calling for changes in the structure of public higher education. The public document embodying this structure was called the California Master Plan.
California Assemblywoman Dorothy Donahoe, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, passed away on April 4, 1960 after sponsoring the resolution (ACR 88) calling for the creation of the Master Plan and lobbying tirelessly for its adoption. The California Legislature honored her memory by renaming the Master Plan legislation the Donahoe Higher Education Act. With this act, the California State college system--which would later evolve into the California State University (CSU) system--was established on July 1, 1961 under an independent Board of Trustees.
The Donahoe Higher Education Act clearly defined the roles and functions among the three segments of California's public higher education: the University of California, the state colleges, and the community colleges. A Coordinating Council for Higher Education as a voluntary organizing body composed of segmental and public representatives to advise the governor, legislature and segments was created. The functions of the California state colleges were defined to include undergraduate and graduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences and applied fields and professions leading to baccalaureate and master's degrees and to joint doctoral degrees with the University of California. The selection of students for the California state colleges was redefined to set eligibility for freshmen at the top third of secondary school graduates and lower division enrollment to 40% of undergraduate enrollment (the University of California accepting the top eighth), thus diverting substantial number of lower division students to community colleges.
The implementation of the act was not simple. The history of state colleges in California at that point went back over one hundred years beginning with the founding of the first State Normal School founded in 1857. Like other state colleges at that time, California's first state college began with a mandate as a teacher training institution. This campus was originally located in San Francisco then transferred to the city of San Jose in 1870. Over the next 70 years, population growth in California brought the need for various branches of the school to open throughout the state: Los Angeles, in 1882 (transferred to the UC system in 1919); Chico in 1889; San Diego in 1897; San Francisco (re-established) in 1899; the California State Polytechnic Institute at San Luis Obispo, in 1903; Santa Barbara in 1909 (transferred to the UC system in 1944); Fresno in 1911; and Humboldt in 1913. As these institutions were created, administrative reorganization was taking place at the state government level.
In 1921, the legislature reorganized policymaking structures for education. A system of dual or shared authority between the State Department of Education and the State Board of Education was created to administer the state schools whose role was redefined as constituting the first two years of college or university instruction. By 1935 the state teachers colleges enrolled more than 7,000 students and were gradually independently evolving into serving the diverse needs of their regional districts as well as responding to local labor needs and desires of Californians for post secondary education. At this time, the legislature again changed both names (each was named for its location) and functions (offering undergraduate liberal arts majors in major teaching fields for secondary schools) of these institutions.
After World War II, enrollment expansion continued in California, many new students being veterans paying tuition using the GI Bill. In 1946, the programs leading to a liberal arts degree, without reference to teacher education were authorized by the legislature. In 1947, a master of art degree in teaching was authorized and by 1955 the master of sciences degrees in vocational fields. New campuses were established between 1947-1949 in Sacramento, (re-established) in Los Angeles, and Long Beach. By the late 1950s, the state colleges had experienced substantial uncoordinated growth and expected explosive expansion in the 1960s because of the coming tidal wave of students; their programs were developing in a way that officials at the University of California found threatening. This was the background for the Donahoe Education Act. Under this act, new institutions of higher learning in California would be systematically planned and then opened.
Between 1957-60 new Cal State campuses were planned at Fullerton, Hayward, Stanislaus, San Fernando Valley (later "Northridge"), Sonoma, San Bernardino and Dominguez Hills, and it was decided that these new schools would be subject to the Master Plan and the newly formed CSU System. Other CSU campuses later opened in Bakersfield in 1967, San Marcos in 1989, and Monterey Bay in 1995. A Board of Trustees took the responsibility for the newly created California State System in 1961, and their first task was to create a chancellor's office and staff. The board located the first office in the Los Angeles.
In the mid-1970s, a new CSU headquarters would be erected in Long Beach. Buell Gallagher, formerly president of City College of New York, was selected by the trustees to be the first chancellor. Attacked by right-wing critics as being "soft" on communism, and urged by family members unhappy in California, Gallagher returned to his old job after only serving eight months. The Trustees then turned to Glen Dumke, who had been Gallagher's vice chancellor for academic affairs and, before that, president of San Francisco State. Dumke was an published historian before becoming an administrator, and had been part of the joint team that drafted the original Master Plan. During his 20-year tenure, the chancellor survived campus riots, budget cuts that followed Ronald Reagan's election as governor in 1966 and at least one attempt by board members to oust him. However, during the Dumke years, the CSU system grew, both in size and academic reputation.
In 1971, Dumke won an important political victory in Sacramento, when Governor Reagan signed a bill changing the system's name to the California State University and Colleges. (Later, "colleges" was dropped.) Dumke and the Board of Trustees thought this was important because the term "university" officially recognized that state faculty members were capable of doing research and teaching advanced graduate students.
As the civil rights movement of the 1960s evolved into the Vietnam War protests of the early 1970s, civil unrest erupted nationwide. On Cal State campuses, administrative offices were burned at CSU, Northridge, computer facilities were destroyed at Fresno State, and at San Francisco State, minority student protests led to violent clashes with the San Francisco police. Dumke's 20-year run as chancellor was astonishing, coming at a time when campus presidents and system heads all over the country were resigning, or being asked to resign, after five years or less. Even Dumke's harshest opponents among the faculty marveled at his tenacity. Dumke eventually stepped down and was replaced in 1982 by Wynetka Ann Reynolds, the former provost at Ohio State University--characterized as an brilliant, dynamic, enterprising woman with an fiery temper and a manner that many people found abrasive.
Reynolds' appointment was narrowly confirmed after a tumultuous selection process, a disheartening beginning, some of her supporters believe, she never quite overcame. Nevertheless, the new chancellor had vision for the Cal State system and made considerable progress during her eight years in office. CSU admissions standards were raised. Teacher preparation was improved in a system that produces about 60 percent of the California's primary and secondary teachers. "Magnet" high schools were opened on Cal State campuses, in collaboration with the Los Angeles public schools--performing arts at Cal State Los Angeles, science and mathematics at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Reynolds encouraged minority recruiting efforts and provided strong system-wide support for both fine arts and performing arts, areas that had been neglected on many Cal State campuses. She pushed for higher salaries for campus presidents while, at the same time, started a formal process of evaluating the performance of the campus chiefs. However, her accomplishments were overshadowed by a personal style that many on her staff and on the campuses found boldly offensive. Some think Reynolds' problems with others were caused by her inability to grasp that the Cal State System was federation. Key trustees were convinced that Reynolds was trying to concentrate power in the central office and that too much of the board's business was being conducted in secret. In her defense, others stated that Reynolds problems with others were due to sexism. "A woman can do the same things a man can do but she will be seen differently," said Trustee Blanche C. Bersch of Reynolds in a 1996 interview, recalling the Reynolds chancellorship. * By 1987, general trustee opinion was shifting against Reynolds and she left three years later.
In April 1990, Ellis McCune left the presidency of Cal State Hayward to be interim chancellor until the arrival of Barry Munitz in August 1991. McCune, who was reluctant to keep the job permanently, nevertheless provided a calming influence on the CSU system by smoothing relations with most CSU trustees contrasting to their relationship with his predecessor. He also shortened the amount of reporting from individual campuses to the central office, a burden that McCune and other presidents had been complaining about for some time. Munitz brought a varied background to his new post. He had been chancellor of the University of Houston's main campus from 1977 to 1982, but then resigned to became vice chairman of Maxxam Inc., a large Houston-based conglomerate before returning to academic leadership at CSU. The chancellor's corporate past was the target of protests by environmental groups because of Maxxam's takeover of Pacific Lumber Co. in Humboldt County, and the clear cutting of old growth redwood trees that followed. However, Munitz defended himself by stating that his former job largely involved dealing with governmental agencies and other external relations and that he had little to do with making company policy. The trustee committee recruiting the chancellor found nothing to persuade them against hiring a chancellor with both higher education and corporate experience.
As chancellor, Munitz immediately set about rebuilding Cal State's reputation Sacramento. He established good relations with Governor Pete Wilson and he managed to stay on reasonably good terms with both parties in the Legislature. His dedication to decentralizing the 22-campuses and promoting "charter campuses" that would be free from many system-wide regulations deliberations was popular; although his introduction of "merit pay" for the Cal State's faculty salary was not popular with the faculty union. During his chancellorship, the opening the new Cal State Monterey Bay campus, the acquiring of the California Maritime Academy, and the planning a 23rd campus in Ventura County occurred. In 1988 he resigned to head the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Dr. Charles B. Reed, former chancellor of the State University System in Florida, took over in 1988 and is the current Chancellor for the California State University System. He heads a system that has grown to be the largest university system in the nation and has over 40,000 faculty and staff and almost 360,000 students on 23 campuses and five off-campus centers. The CSU annual budget is approximately $5.5 billion; it administers approximately 1,000 bachelor's degree programs, 600 master's programs, and 16 joint doctoral programs in 240 areas. Each of the colleges has a separate history, operates more independently than the branches of its counterpart in the University of California system, and considers itself part of a greater federation.
The CSU system produces more college graduates in California than all other universities and colleges in the state combined, and its endurance is a testament to foresighted, higher education planning embodied in Donahoe Act and the strength and will of key individuals that created the system and maintained it.
Note
*Background information on the four chancellors was complied from this source: Trombley, William. "CAL STATE TRUSTEES: A new "corporate" style" in The California Higher Education Policy Center Newsletter, 1996.
Scope and Content
The CSU Public Affairs Photo Collection (1.5 linear ft.) encompasses photographic material from the late 1800s to the early 1990s. The bulk of the photos contained here date from the 1960s-to the 1980s. The photos in this collection were created or gathered by the CSU Public Affairs Office, which provides consultation and advice to the Trustees, Chancellor, and other staff. The Public Affairs Offices oversees publications and reproduction Centers, responds to press and other media inquiries as well as to information requests by the general public, and works cooperatively with campus public affairs offices on areas of mutual interest. Many of the photos here were previously published as part of informative brochures, fact sheets, and other publications relevant to the public about the CSU. Unprocessed, this collection was approximately 3 liner feet. However, due to the limited space in the CSU Archives and professional archival judgment based on standard appraisal procedures, duplicate photos, non-photographic material, and items not relevant to the mission of the CSU archive's mission--that is, having no CSU system-wide significance--were removed. (Please see further comments in the individual series descriptions.) The collection is divided into two series correlating to the CSU system as a whole and to individual campuses.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Fracking Doesn't Cause Earthquakes, Disposal of Fracking Waste Goo Does, Tortured Logic Revealed.

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If you love fracking, I suppose you like the tortured logic here:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/more-on-the-link-between-earthquakes-and-fracking/

where we don't blame fracking , but claim that pumping the waste slurry into deep wells afterwards, or the increased extraction of gas, is responsible instead???

Hello?

"Love and Marriage. Love and Marriage,
Go together like a horse and carriage.
You can't have one,
You can't have one,
Without the other."

Ditto fracking and disposal of waste lube goo produced in the process.

Ditto earthquakes and taking out large quantities of gas.

Thinking in iso-logic* tight compartments leads to environmental and structural disasters.

*short for isolated logic, not "same."

Here's another group of idiots who try to comparmentalize the disposal of fracking fluids from the fracking process itself:

http://m.bhpioneer.com/mobile/local_news/article_98a28112-9bb7-11e1-804e-0019bb2963f4.html

So I guess we should say, "Fine, go frack all you want, but find some other way of disposing of all the frackwater, other than lubing up Mother Earth for another go-round of earthquakes."

A case of bending over backwards to protect the industry can be found here:

http://www.okgeosurvey1.gov/media/research/OGSPositionInducedSeismicity.pdf

Monday, August 06, 2012

Rebane's Blog Goes Silent...

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Rebane's blog's right wing regulars go strangely silent when it is revealed the company they keep:

"Authorities said they were treating the attack as an act of domestic terrorism. American Sikhs said they have often been singled out for harassment, and occasionally violent attack, since the September 11, 2001, attacks because of their colorful turbans and beards.

U.S. military sources said Page had been discharged from the Army in 1998 for "patterns of misconduct" and had been cited for being drunk on duty.
Page had served in the military for six years but was never posted overseas. He was a psychological operations specialist and missile repairman who was last stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the sources said.

In June 1998 he was disciplined for being drunk on duty and had his rank reduced to specialist from sergeant. He was not eligible to re-enlist.

Page had been a member of the racist skinhead band End Apathy, based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 2010, said Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

Page also tried to buy goods from the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, in 2000, she said. The SPLC describes the National Alliance on its website as "perhaps the most dangerous and best organized neo-Nazi formation in America."

In a 2010 online interview with End Apathy's record label Label56, Page said he had founded the band in 2005 because "I realized ... that if we could figure out how to end people's apathetic ways it would be the start towards moving forward.""