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I just fired up my barbeque for the first time this season, after buying a 20 lb bag of Kingsford brickettes at K-Mart on sale. I built my little pile, squirted on the lighter, and waited until I had a nice glowing pile.
Then I went to spread them around, and a good one third of them fell through the grate to the catch pan below! ARRRgh!
I looked at the bag. Kingsford, each brickette with a "K" on it. I've used the stuff for fifty years with no problems. I looked closer at my 20 lb bag......hmmmmm.......it's now an 18 pound bag. No wonder it was on sale at a price just slightly below last season's 20 pounders.
I looked at the brickettes. They seemed, skinnier????? Could that be?????
I still had an older bag back in the shed. I took it out. It was a 20 lb bag. I looked at the brickettes. They seemed...thicker. Quickly I lined up a bunch from each bag, and indeed the new brickettes are thinner on average than the older ones. This means that they will burn up faster, fall through the grates more easily, greatly add to the air pollution and CO2 levels, and force me to go locate a crossway grate to catch the falling brickettes, and hold them at the right height.
I've been told that K Mart and the other big box stores get specially packaged inferior products of brand names. Is this evidence of that? My dogs seem to need to eat more Pedigree dog food than they used to. Is it less nutritional now that gas has gone up?
Nathan Hotdogs on special, but that's a 12 oz package, not a 16 oz package. Seven skinny dogs, also subject to "fall through," not 8 dogs as before. "We have met the enemy, and they is us," Walt Kelly of Pogo fame.
It's time to see if http://consumerist.com with take up the story.
it's obvious that both companies want to sell more product at less cost. And Kingsford doesn't care how much they pollute the environment. I think I will go to natural wood style charcoal for the duration.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Polically Correct Concepts, The Republican Versions
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Try Going Against the "Politically Correct for Republicans" issues Below:
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Try Going Against the "Politically Correct for Republicans" issues Below:
The USA is always right.
Any Flag is .........
Private Property is ..........
The police are perfect .........
Republicans are perfect .........
Anyone or any idea not promulgated by a Republican must be bad, wrongheaded, or worse.
The environment will take care of itself.
The homeless deserve it.
The bottom end of the pay scale deserves it.
Those in medical need without coverage deserve none.
Roads will never be gridlocked.
We will always have enough food, and water doesn't have to be that clean.
Nor does food.
Mass transit must pay for itself.
Anyone not a RightThinkingRepublican is delusional.
There are no innocent victims when it comes to firearms discharged by government agents.
The military industrial complex will never bankrupt this country.
China will never reach Mars with a human first. If they do, they will never get them back.
Should Japan or China or Germany patent super cheap solar panels first, our economy will be just as prosperous as if we had.
It's OK to give banks free money, but not the mortgagees.
The schools cost too much and never give us genius employees who will work for nothing and be grateful for the chance.
I "deserve" an SUV, a golf club, and everything else you can think of.
My God is Better than Your God.
In fact, your God is dead or a liar.
And so are you.
Any Flag is .........
Private Property is ..........
The police are perfect .........
Republicans are perfect .........
Anyone or any idea not promulgated by a Republican must be bad, wrongheaded, or worse.
The environment will take care of itself.
The homeless deserve it.
The bottom end of the pay scale deserves it.
Those in medical need without coverage deserve none.
Roads will never be gridlocked.
We will always have enough food, and water doesn't have to be that clean.
Nor does food.
Mass transit must pay for itself.
Anyone not a RightThinkingRepublican is delusional.
There are no innocent victims when it comes to firearms discharged by government agents.
The military industrial complex will never bankrupt this country.
China will never reach Mars with a human first. If they do, they will never get them back.
Should Japan or China or Germany patent super cheap solar panels first, our economy will be just as prosperous as if we had.
It's OK to give banks free money, but not the mortgagees.
The schools cost too much and never give us genius employees who will work for nothing and be grateful for the chance.
I "deserve" an SUV, a golf club, and everything else you can think of.
My God is Better than Your God.
In fact, your God is dead or a liar.
And so are you.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Charter Schools are Cheaper, You Betcha!
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So Open a School with a class size of 20
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Cali spends $6200 per pupil per year. NY upwards oof $14000....It is amazing what gets done w/ the these lackluster funding.
report this | replyby bucalum on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:16:09 PDT
report this | replyby bucalum on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:16:09 PDT
You are the teacher, of all subjects, at all levels. you have that kinds of smarts.
$124,000 less rent of a classroom. We'll dispense with a playground, and use the public parks (done often, BTW).
You need at least 1,000 sq feet, plus a restroom. At $1/sq ft, that leaves you with $112,000. Oh, the building has to conform to all fire codes (sprinklers in ceiling, earthquake proof), be handicapped accessible, etc. to be usable as a school. You also need drop off and pickup spaces. Maybe $2/sq ft, including a bit of storage.
Did you plan to offer science or shop? Gas lines and more space needed, add another 500 sq feet at least, but fancier, so $2.50 sq/ft. $100,000 left.
How about 21 laptops at $600 each, every three years. or about $12,000/3 or $96,000 left.
How about a few books, typically $50 each per subject, times four major subjects, times 21, $91,600 left.
Art and music supplies and instruments, make the parents buy those, ooops, can't do that with the poor kids, so at least $100/kid, $89,600 left.
Now there is a little thing called liability insurance, another thing called theft and vandalism, and a whole bunch more things I don't even know the names of from the same kind of company. Do you think you could get by with less than $4,600/ I doubt it. $85,000 left.
Did you ever buy health insurance on your own, good health insurance? -$12,000 for the year. $73,000.
Did you plan on getting rich doing this, and retiring? -12,000 again, for the old nest egg. $61,000.
Were you going to take the kids on field trips, at least one with a bus? -$500 $60,500.
Ooops, light, heat, water, power for computers, phones -$6,000 $54,500.
How did you plan on getting parents to sign up?
Advertising, mailings, and your time going to every kid related event you can think of. -$4,000 $50,500 left.
What happens if you don't get 20 kids to stay the entire year, or even sign up in the first place? Can you order a lot of those items one off without incurring horrendous shipping charges? You need a reverse fund. -$5,500 won't even cover the loss of one kid.
Are you getting rich yet? Go Charter School founder, more power to you!
And how many people do you know who would be smart enough to teach all those subjects for that little money, at that high a risk? Right, NONE!
Buckle Up, Bucalum, Your Kia is the Public School down the street. The Mercedes is for sale, at $40,000/year, at Exeter Academy, where daddy Bush sent GeorgiePorgie.
$124,000 less rent of a classroom. We'll dispense with a playground, and use the public parks (done often, BTW).
You need at least 1,000 sq feet, plus a restroom. At $1/sq ft, that leaves you with $112,000. Oh, the building has to conform to all fire codes (sprinklers in ceiling, earthquake proof), be handicapped accessible, etc. to be usable as a school. You also need drop off and pickup spaces. Maybe $2/sq ft, including a bit of storage.
Did you plan to offer science or shop? Gas lines and more space needed, add another 500 sq feet at least, but fancier, so $2.50 sq/ft. $100,000 left.
How about 21 laptops at $600 each, every three years. or about $12,000/3 or $96,000 left.
How about a few books, typically $50 each per subject, times four major subjects, times 21, $91,600 left.
Art and music supplies and instruments, make the parents buy those, ooops, can't do that with the poor kids, so at least $100/kid, $89,600 left.
Now there is a little thing called liability insurance, another thing called theft and vandalism, and a whole bunch more things I don't even know the names of from the same kind of company. Do you think you could get by with less than $4,600/ I doubt it. $85,000 left.
Did you ever buy health insurance on your own, good health insurance? -$12,000 for the year. $73,000.
Did you plan on getting rich doing this, and retiring? -12,000 again, for the old nest egg. $61,000.
Were you going to take the kids on field trips, at least one with a bus? -$500 $60,500.
Ooops, light, heat, water, power for computers, phones -$6,000 $54,500.
How did you plan on getting parents to sign up?
Advertising, mailings, and your time going to every kid related event you can think of. -$4,000 $50,500 left.
What happens if you don't get 20 kids to stay the entire year, or even sign up in the first place? Can you order a lot of those items one off without incurring horrendous shipping charges? You need a reverse fund. -$5,500 won't even cover the loss of one kid.
Are you getting rich yet? Go Charter School founder, more power to you!
And how many people do you know who would be smart enough to teach all those subjects for that little money, at that high a risk? Right, NONE!
Buckle Up, Bucalum, Your Kia is the Public School down the street. The Mercedes is for sale, at $40,000/year, at Exeter Academy, where daddy Bush sent GeorgiePorgie.
I Suspect that as the Oil Runs Out, We will Find that
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I Suspect that as the Oil Runs Out, We will Find that
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I Suspect that as the Oil Runs Out, We will Find that
the MegaCorps in the energy and motor vehicle production areas have been preparing for this for much longer than we might have guessed.
Have you noticed the really charming ads on tv from GE? They know who to hire and how much extra cash it takes to really effect a cultural change. In their case they want to be seen as the "heros" who save the day as oil nee gas becomes the uneconomical environmentally damaging fuel that it's been all along.
From the standpoint of the interlocking directorships of the major corporations (think Hillary/Walmart) they merely want two things:
To get as much money as possible out of the old technologies in which they have so much invested. This is why no new oil refineries have been built. They already knew that technology was dead years ago.
To remain in control of whatever it is that replaces those old technologies, and continues to produce cash. Like planned obsolescence, they merely want to take the slightest step upwards in energy efficiency and independence. Taking a big leap would mean they would not have the cash or the control of the technolgies involved. Many minor leaps, with the customers stuck for each upgrade, keeps them in control.
Initially, what we can expect is cars and trucks running off of solar, at a cost of about the equivalent of $6/gallon. This will seem a bargain in comparison to gasoline, which will hover around $9.11/gallon, and be used for antique vehicles by afictionados who can afford the luxury. And, of course, by the military and the New Feudal Lords, who get whatever they want, with the taxpayer footing the bill.
These people have been playing these games for 150 years now. They are getting very good at screwing the consumer and John Q. Public, and they are not going to stop out of the goodness of their hearts.
To counter act this behavior:
Let people know they are being screwed and by whom and in what ways.
Let young people know this is happening, in no uncertain terms. Then, encourage them to get educated as much as possible, so as to not only understand the mechanisms of culture, but also to have the skill sets that earn the kind of money needed to change culture, and to create the inventions we need to stabilize planet Earth.
Population stabilization is a key player here, but generally only occurs when women become educated, and, to a certain extent, "Westernized." Making underground videos available in Russia had a lot to do with the fall of the Soviet dictatorship. Making western culture available via satellite tv will probably be viewed, in the ancient future, as the number one item, just after Internet access, that brought about population stabilization.
BTW, even just one nuke going off, anywhere on the planet, will be catastrophic, so that fear is still right there, at least for us older folks. because if one goes off, you cannot prove who set it off, or where it came from. Most importantly, since you can't prove A and B, you have NO IDEA WHEN AND WHERE the NEXT ONE might blow.
Consider, for example, some part of the Iranian desert goes up. Was it their lab, or a plant by the USA? The evidence one way or the other would be destroyed, in the explosion itself. How could you prove there wasn't a lab located underneath Tehran, to make this even twichier? That's where I'd put it, if I were Iranian. very hard to detect, with all the background noises. Just tunnel in from an industrial suburb, and dump the tailings into a river underwater, and keep on dredging the river.
Good Luck Everybody!
Have you noticed the really charming ads on tv from GE? They know who to hire and how much extra cash it takes to really effect a cultural change. In their case they want to be seen as the "heros" who save the day as oil nee gas becomes the uneconomical environmentally damaging fuel that it's been all along.
From the standpoint of the interlocking directorships of the major corporations (think Hillary/Walmart) they merely want two things:
To get as much money as possible out of the old technologies in which they have so much invested. This is why no new oil refineries have been built. They already knew that technology was dead years ago.
To remain in control of whatever it is that replaces those old technologies, and continues to produce cash. Like planned obsolescence, they merely want to take the slightest step upwards in energy efficiency and independence. Taking a big leap would mean they would not have the cash or the control of the technolgies involved. Many minor leaps, with the customers stuck for each upgrade, keeps them in control.
Initially, what we can expect is cars and trucks running off of solar, at a cost of about the equivalent of $6/gallon. This will seem a bargain in comparison to gasoline, which will hover around $9.11/gallon, and be used for antique vehicles by afictionados who can afford the luxury. And, of course, by the military and the New Feudal Lords, who get whatever they want, with the taxpayer footing the bill.
These people have been playing these games for 150 years now. They are getting very good at screwing the consumer and John Q. Public, and they are not going to stop out of the goodness of their hearts.
To counter act this behavior:
Let people know they are being screwed and by whom and in what ways.
Let young people know this is happening, in no uncertain terms. Then, encourage them to get educated as much as possible, so as to not only understand the mechanisms of culture, but also to have the skill sets that earn the kind of money needed to change culture, and to create the inventions we need to stabilize planet Earth.
Population stabilization is a key player here, but generally only occurs when women become educated, and, to a certain extent, "Westernized." Making underground videos available in Russia had a lot to do with the fall of the Soviet dictatorship. Making western culture available via satellite tv will probably be viewed, in the ancient future, as the number one item, just after Internet access, that brought about population stabilization.
BTW, even just one nuke going off, anywhere on the planet, will be catastrophic, so that fear is still right there, at least for us older folks. because if one goes off, you cannot prove who set it off, or where it came from. Most importantly, since you can't prove A and B, you have NO IDEA WHEN AND WHERE the NEXT ONE might blow.
Consider, for example, some part of the Iranian desert goes up. Was it their lab, or a plant by the USA? The evidence one way or the other would be destroyed, in the explosion itself. How could you prove there wasn't a lab located underneath Tehran, to make this even twichier? That's where I'd put it, if I were Iranian. very hard to detect, with all the background noises. Just tunnel in from an industrial suburb, and dump the tailings into a river underwater, and keep on dredging the river.
Good Luck Everybody!
Friday, March 07, 2008
The Biggest Problem is the Oldest Problem......
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the government and the businesses that either obfusticate or outright lie about their aims and objectives. It set a very bad moral tone for the whole country. It's called, "Trickle Down Ethics."
Even if the kids can't pin all the right tales (deliberate not use of "tail") on the appropriate donkeys, elephants and jackals, they have enough intuition to sense that they are getting screwed while others are getting free passes.
Are some of them angry and stupid? You betcha! Of the parties involved, who has the most responsibility and also the capabilities to change things? A sixteen year old kid? I think not.
One of the best things a teacher can do is to acknowledge this leadership gap at the top, and then give a young person suggestions on "work-arounds with awareness," to fly past these sticky nets of society, oftentimes by using them to their own improvement.
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the government and the businesses that either obfusticate or outright lie about their aims and objectives. It set a very bad moral tone for the whole country. It's called, "Trickle Down Ethics."
Even if the kids can't pin all the right tales (deliberate not use of "tail") on the appropriate donkeys, elephants and jackals, they have enough intuition to sense that they are getting screwed while others are getting free passes.
Are some of them angry and stupid? You betcha! Of the parties involved, who has the most responsibility and also the capabilities to change things? A sixteen year old kid? I think not.
One of the best things a teacher can do is to acknowledge this leadership gap at the top, and then give a young person suggestions on "work-arounds with awareness," to fly past these sticky nets of society, oftentimes by using them to their own improvement.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Immigrants and Self Interest
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Immigrants are here because of:
Their own self interest. Even at what Americans consider crappy wages and conditions, the immigrants have it better here than where they came from. If they didn't, they'd never come here.
The self interest of those who employ them. The immigrants are willing to work for lower wages and under worse conditions than Americans will. Wink, wink, no, nod, from all the business owners, primarily Republicans, gets them through and allows them to stay here. Without that self interest, we could plug the borders in one day.
The average American Joe has no easily identifiable self interest in having the immigrants here, other than diversifying the gene pool while simultaneously allowing there to be a rung on the ladder below them, in most cases. Otherwise, immigration is just one more part of overpopulation, expensive housing, crowded schools and emergency rooms, more accidents on the highways, etc.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
As far as I am concerned, if the immigrant can pass the GED as presented in English, then he or she may stay. If they can get an A.A. degree, then they may bring in one additional person, who can in turn get an A.A. degree (any subject except a "foreign" language), and so on. It would raise the average educational level of the country substantially.
PS Somebody also pointed out the desire on the part of the Democrats for more voters likely to vote Democratic.
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Immigrants are here because of:
Their own self interest. Even at what Americans consider crappy wages and conditions, the immigrants have it better here than where they came from. If they didn't, they'd never come here.
The self interest of those who employ them. The immigrants are willing to work for lower wages and under worse conditions than Americans will. Wink, wink, no, nod, from all the business owners, primarily Republicans, gets them through and allows them to stay here. Without that self interest, we could plug the borders in one day.
The average American Joe has no easily identifiable self interest in having the immigrants here, other than diversifying the gene pool while simultaneously allowing there to be a rung on the ladder below them, in most cases. Otherwise, immigration is just one more part of overpopulation, expensive housing, crowded schools and emergency rooms, more accidents on the highways, etc.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
As far as I am concerned, if the immigrant can pass the GED as presented in English, then he or she may stay. If they can get an A.A. degree, then they may bring in one additional person, who can in turn get an A.A. degree (any subject except a "foreign" language), and so on. It would raise the average educational level of the country substantially.
PS Somebody also pointed out the desire on the part of the Democrats for more voters likely to vote Democratic.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Picture Perfect Cultural Diversity Self Test
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I've discovered a new game. If you go to the Reuters site below, and you click on the slide show option, you will get a description of a news event somewhere in the world. If you cover up the part of the screen where the picture appears before clicking on the next picture, you can then make up a scene in your mind based on the description.
For example, there was described a man in England looking over his damaged bedroom aftre the earthquake. in my mind I conjured up an image reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes in garb and demeanor, looking into a bedroom straight out of the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The picture turned out to be of a young man, and could have been taken in any San Jose apartment, complete with stereo and laptop and unmade bed.
Another scene in Peru was also just as USA, just as modern, at a hairdresser's parlour, and just as much a surprise to good old narrow minded me. The world is racing towards the mall in most places.
Reuters Location for Catch of the Day Pictures.
(be sure to click on "slide show" to get the desired effect)
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I've discovered a new game. If you go to the Reuters site below, and you click on the slide show option, you will get a description of a news event somewhere in the world. If you cover up the part of the screen where the picture appears before clicking on the next picture, you can then make up a scene in your mind based on the description.
For example, there was described a man in England looking over his damaged bedroom aftre the earthquake. in my mind I conjured up an image reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes in garb and demeanor, looking into a bedroom straight out of the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The picture turned out to be of a young man, and could have been taken in any San Jose apartment, complete with stereo and laptop and unmade bed.
Another scene in Peru was also just as USA, just as modern, at a hairdresser's parlour, and just as much a surprise to good old narrow minded me. The world is racing towards the mall in most places.
Reuters Location for Catch of the Day Pictures.
(be sure to click on "slide show" to get the desired effect)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
KVMR and other Radio Pledge Drives
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It would seem to me that once you have paid your yearly dues, you could be given a code which you could input on the web radio page to get "best of" shows in chronological order during the pledge week. You wouldn't have to keep listening to the pitches for money, which become very annoying after you've paid. Each person gets one code for one computer. It would be a real incentive to sign up and go back to more normal listening. Plus, you could have a bonus prize for one of those who do sign on using the web radio, or either way.
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It would seem to me that once you have paid your yearly dues, you could be given a code which you could input on the web radio page to get "best of" shows in chronological order during the pledge week. You wouldn't have to keep listening to the pitches for money, which become very annoying after you've paid. Each person gets one code for one computer. It would be a real incentive to sign up and go back to more normal listening. Plus, you could have a bonus prize for one of those who do sign on using the web radio, or either way.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
18 Thinkers Think These are the Challenges for Technology
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Make solar energy affordable
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Reverse engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Advance personalised learning
Explore natural frontiers
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Make solar energy affordable
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Reverse engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Advance personalised learning
Explore natural frontiers
Support the Danes in Free Speech & Against Iran
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Time to go to the local markets and buy Danish products, cheese, bacon, hams, cookies, etc.
From the BBC:
"Danish MPs have cancelled a trip to Iran after Tehran demanded they apologise for the republication of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam.
Two days before the scheduled trip, Tehran demanded the MPs condemn the cartoon on their arrival in Iran.
The row follows the arrest on Tuesday of three men for allegedly planning to murder Danish cartoonist Ko Vestigal.
The following day, 11 Danish papers reprinted his drawing depicting the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.
A condemnation and apology would help convince the Iranian people that Denmark's authorities had distanced themselves from the action, Iran's parliament said in a letter to Danish MPs.
If anyone needs to apologise... it is the Iranians
Villy Soevndal,
Danish MP
Nine members of Denmark's foreign affairs committee were due to arrive in Iran on Monday for a three-day trip focusing on human rights and the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
"We are not the ones to apologise," said Villy Soevndal, the leader of Denmark's Socialist People's Party.
"If anyone needs to apologise for freedom of speech, human rights, imprisonments, executions and lack of democracy, it is the Iranians."
Denmark's foreign minister has backed the parliamentarians' decision not to travel."
*******************************************************************************
The Iranian LEADERS, have no sense of humor. The Iranian people, that's another story. After all, they have to live with the Iranian leaders....
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Time to go to the local markets and buy Danish products, cheese, bacon, hams, cookies, etc.
From the BBC:
"Danish MPs have cancelled a trip to Iran after Tehran demanded they apologise for the republication of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam.
Two days before the scheduled trip, Tehran demanded the MPs condemn the cartoon on their arrival in Iran.
The row follows the arrest on Tuesday of three men for allegedly planning to murder Danish cartoonist Ko Vestigal.
The following day, 11 Danish papers reprinted his drawing depicting the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.
A condemnation and apology would help convince the Iranian people that Denmark's authorities had distanced themselves from the action, Iran's parliament said in a letter to Danish MPs.
If anyone needs to apologise... it is the Iranians
Villy Soevndal,
Danish MP
Nine members of Denmark's foreign affairs committee were due to arrive in Iran on Monday for a three-day trip focusing on human rights and the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
"We are not the ones to apologise," said Villy Soevndal, the leader of Denmark's Socialist People's Party.
"If anyone needs to apologise for freedom of speech, human rights, imprisonments, executions and lack of democracy, it is the Iranians."
Denmark's foreign minister has backed the parliamentarians' decision not to travel."
*******************************************************************************
The Iranian LEADERS, have no sense of humor. The Iranian people, that's another story. After all, they have to live with the Iranian leaders....
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Huckabee Comes Out in Favor of Solar Energy!
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"Tell the Saudis to keep their oil and their sand!"
Mike Huckabee in Madison Wisconson, about 2 minutes ago on CNN.
Well D U H !
Welcome Aboard!
I've been screaming about this for years. Thank God God's finally getting his act together. It's about time, as time is running out.
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"Tell the Saudis to keep their oil and their sand!"
Mike Huckabee in Madison Wisconson, about 2 minutes ago on CNN.
Well D U H !
Welcome Aboard!
I've been screaming about this for years. Thank God God's finally getting his act together. It's about time, as time is running out.
So You Want Your Child to Succeed in School ???
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The most important thing you can teach them, regardless of what "school" they are in, is the need for them to take responsibility for learning, and for them to be persistent. No teacher can pour knowledge into the top of students' heads via funnels and then put on a locking cap. The schoolhouse is not a bottling plant. The very best teachers can facilitate learning and make it happen happily, for some of the students. It is very seldom you will find a teacher who can teach everybody across the board in a classroom setting, unless the students understand and embrace the two cornerstones of education above.
If the parents do not instill those values, and instead take the attitude that, "it is the teacher's job to teach their kids, whether the kids are primed to learn or NOT," then we will need Continuation Schools, Delinquent Schools, Remedial Schools, Summer Makeup Schools, Alternative Schools (some, not all), so-called "Academies" of this that or the other thing (I watched SFUSD add the word "Academy" to a half dozen schools, to no effect on test scores even years later).
If a child, with encouragement from his parents, has made up his mid that he or she is "dumb," or simply that he or she is going to resist learning for spite, for whatever psychological reasons, usually completely beyond the control and often even the background knowledge of the teacher, then learning will not take place.
And, BTW, the military is doing its darndest to avoid taking on kids who fail in school. The military has learned that if a kids has failed there, the kid is also likely to fail in the military. It takes a willingness to learn to succeed in today's military.
For me, I see the biggest problem confronting society is in educating the previous batch of kids who are now having kids of their own, that they are not stupid and can learn. This is good for them, it is good for their kids, it is good for the country. Do any of our present Presidential candidates see this issue? I don't see it being talked about anywhere, other than in the very general "yes we can!" slogan of Obama.
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The most important thing you can teach them, regardless of what "school" they are in, is the need for them to take responsibility for learning, and for them to be persistent. No teacher can pour knowledge into the top of students' heads via funnels and then put on a locking cap. The schoolhouse is not a bottling plant. The very best teachers can facilitate learning and make it happen happily, for some of the students. It is very seldom you will find a teacher who can teach everybody across the board in a classroom setting, unless the students understand and embrace the two cornerstones of education above.
If the parents do not instill those values, and instead take the attitude that, "it is the teacher's job to teach their kids, whether the kids are primed to learn or NOT," then we will need Continuation Schools, Delinquent Schools, Remedial Schools, Summer Makeup Schools, Alternative Schools (some, not all), so-called "Academies" of this that or the other thing (I watched SFUSD add the word "Academy" to a half dozen schools, to no effect on test scores even years later).
If a child, with encouragement from his parents, has made up his mid that he or she is "dumb," or simply that he or she is going to resist learning for spite, for whatever psychological reasons, usually completely beyond the control and often even the background knowledge of the teacher, then learning will not take place.
And, BTW, the military is doing its darndest to avoid taking on kids who fail in school. The military has learned that if a kids has failed there, the kid is also likely to fail in the military. It takes a willingness to learn to succeed in today's military.
For me, I see the biggest problem confronting society is in educating the previous batch of kids who are now having kids of their own, that they are not stupid and can learn. This is good for them, it is good for their kids, it is good for the country. Do any of our present Presidential candidates see this issue? I don't see it being talked about anywhere, other than in the very general "yes we can!" slogan of Obama.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Hal 9000 and Heaven, and Ecology/Global Warming
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Here's Another View of Life After Death, and the Place of the Environment in God's Plan
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Here's Another View of Life After Death, and the Place of the Environment in God's Plan
It therefore comes as a something of a shock that Wright doesn't believe in heaven — at least, not in the way that millions of Christians understand the term. In his new book, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne), Wright quotes a children's book by California first lady Maria Shriver called What's Heaven, which describes it as "a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk... If you're good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]... When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him." That, says Wright is a good example of "what not to say." The Biblical truth, he continues, "is very, very different."
Wright, 58, talked by phone with TIME's David Van Biema.
TIME: At one point you call the common view of heaven a "distortion and serious diminution of Christian hope."
Wright: It really is. I've often heard people say, "I'm going to heaven soon, and I won't need this stupid body there, thank goodness.' That's a very damaging distortion, all the more so for being unintentional.
TIME: How so? It seems like a typical sentiment.
Wright: There are several important respects in which it's unsupported by the New Testament. First, the timing. In the Bible we are told that you die, and enter an intermediate state. St. Paul is very clear that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead already, but that nobody else has yet. Secondly, our physical state. The New Testament says that when Christ does return, the dead will experience a whole new life: not just our soul, but our bodies. And finally, the location. At no point do the resurrection narratives in the four Gospels say, "Jesus has been raised, therefore we are all going to heaven." It says that Christ is coming here, to join together the heavens and the Earth in an act of new creation.
TIME: Is there anything more in the Bible about the period between death and the resurrection of the dead?
Wright: We know that we will be with God and with Christ, resting and being refreshed. Paul writes that it will be conscious, but compared with being bodily alive, it will be like being asleep. The Wisdom of Solomon, a Jewish text from about the same time as Jesus, says "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God," and that seems like a poetic way to put the Christian understanding, as well.
TIME: But it's not where the real action is, so to speak?
Wright: No. Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrection into the new heavens and the new Earth. Jesus' resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will "awake," be embodied and participate in the renewal. John Polkinghorne, a physicist and a priest, has put it this way: "God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves." That gets to two things nicely: that the period after death is a period when we are in God's presence but not active in our own bodies, and also that the more important transformation will be when we are again embodied and administering Christ's kingdom.
TIME: That is rather different from the common understanding. Did some Biblical verse contribute to our confusion?
Wright: There is Luke 23, where Jesus says to the good thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." But in Luke, we know first of all that Christ himself will not be resurrected for three days, so "paradise" cannot be a resurrection. It has to be an intermediate state. And chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, where there is a vision of worship in heaven that people imagine describes our worship at the end of time. In fact it's describing the worship that's going on right now. If you read the book through, you see that at the end we don't have a description of heaven, but, as I said, of the new heavens and the new earth joined together.
TIME: Why, then, have we misread those verses?
Wright: It has, originally, to do with the translation of Jewish ideas into Greek. The New Testament is deeply, deeply Jewish, and the Jews had for some time been intuiting a final, physical resurrection. They believed that the world of space and time and matter is messed up, but remains basically good, and God will eventually sort it out and put it right again. Belief in that goodness is absolutely essential to Christianity, both theologically and morally. But Greek-speaking Christians influenced by Plato saw our cosmos as shabby and misshapen and full of lies, and the idea was not to make it right, but to escape it and leave behind our material bodies. The church at its best has always come back toward the Hebrew view, but there have been times when the Greek view was very influential.
TIME: Can you give some historical examples?
Wright: Two obvious ones are Dante's great poetry, which sets up a Heaven, Purgatory and Hell immediately after death, and Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel, which portrays heaven and hell as equal and opposite last destinations. Both had enormous influence on Western culture, so much so that many Christians think that is Christianity.
TIME: But it's not.
Wright: Never at any point do the Gospels or Paul say Jesus has been raised, therefore we are we are all going to heaven. They all say, Jesus is raised, therefore the new creation has begun, and we have a job to do.
TIME: That sounds a lot like... work.
Wright: It's more exciting than hanging around listening to nice music. In Revelation and Paul's letters we are told that God's people will actually be running the new world on God's behalf. The idea of our participation in the new creation goes back to Genesis, when humans are supposed to be running the Garden and looking after the animals. If you transpose that all the way through, it's a picture like the one that you get at the end of Revelation.
TIME: And it ties in to what you've written about this all having a moral dimension.
Wright: Both that, and the idea of bodily resurrection that people deny when they talk about their "souls going to Heaven." If people think "my physical body doesn't matter very much," then who cares what I do with it? And if people think that our world, our cosmos, doesn't matter much, who cares what we do with that? Much of "traditional" Christianity gives the impression that God has these rather arbitrary rules about how you have to behave, and if you disobey them you go to hell, rather than to heaven. What the New Testament really says is God wants you to be a renewed human being helping him to renew his creation, and his resurrection was the opening bell. And when he returns to fulfil the plan, you won't be going up there to him, he'll be coming down here.
TIME: That's very different from, say, the vision put out in the Left Behind books.
Wright: Yes. If there's going to be an Armageddon, and we'll all be in heaven already or raptured up just in time, it really doesn't matter if you have acid rain or greenhouse gases prior to that. Or, for that matter, whether you bombed civilians in Iraq. All that really matters is saving souls for that disembodied heaven.
TIME: Has anyone you've talked to expressed disappointment at the loss of the old view?
Wright: Yes, you might get disappointment in the case where somebody has recently gone through the death of somebody they love and they are wanting simply to be with them. And I'd say that's understandable. But the end of Revelation describes a marvelous human participation in God's plan. And in almost all cases, when I've explained this to people, there's a sense of excitement and a sense of, "Why haven't we been told this before?"
Thursday, February 07, 2008
How About a New IRS in Which No Individuals
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How About a New IRS in Which No Individuals,
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How About a New IRS in Which No Individuals,
just the corporations, are taxed?
Since AlwayRight (a local commenter at The Union newspaper) claims that the Republicans and their corporations are responsible for everything that gets done, let's have the corporations take full responsibility for ALL THE TAXES the government collects.
To encourage the formation of corporations, there will be no income taxes on anyone who works for themselves, with no employees (except family) helping them. There will be no income taxes on any employee who works for a corporation or government body. A soon as the workers get together and figure out a new way to make some product or service, with their new found freedom from taxes and resultant available capital, we'll have yet another corporation to tax! Wonderful!
Hey, thanks for the inspiration, Mr. AlwaysRight!
I've always wanted a cool answer to the Flat Taxers, and this is it. What shall we call this new tax plan ? I'm open to suggestions.
Since AlwayRight (a local commenter at The Union newspaper) claims that the Republicans and their corporations are responsible for everything that gets done, let's have the corporations take full responsibility for ALL THE TAXES the government collects.
To encourage the formation of corporations, there will be no income taxes on anyone who works for themselves, with no employees (except family) helping them. There will be no income taxes on any employee who works for a corporation or government body. A soon as the workers get together and figure out a new way to make some product or service, with their new found freedom from taxes and resultant available capital, we'll have yet another corporation to tax! Wonderful!
Hey, thanks for the inspiration, Mr. AlwaysRight!
I've always wanted a cool answer to the Flat Taxers, and this is it. What shall we call this new tax plan ? I'm open to suggestions.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Fire the School Principals, Save Money !
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I wrote the following in response to some local idiots who were going to save money by getting rid of the principals and other administrators.
About 85% of your education tax dollar goes to pay teachers' salaries and benefits. Very little is left over for books, supplies, and administrators.
A great deal of time the administrators are working with students who have become such a problem in the classrooms that they have been kicked out by the teachers. The also deal with the parents of these students....and the the cops and the lawyers.
When not so occupied, they deal with broken stuff around the facilities, and getting downtown or the District office to send someone out to fix it. After that they attend to WASC (recertification) meetings at least every six years for an entire year. Ah yes, settling disputes within departments among teachers, or between departments among teachers, that's another fun activity.
Somewhere in here they look into building new facilities and getting funding, and getting out the vote. How about a PTSA meeting each month, and God knows how many athletic events, band concerts, and art exhibits they attend? Miss any of these and at least one parent or student will either be crushed or angry or both.
As a teacher of 30 years I actually went most of the way through the process of getting an admin credential, having worked with at least a couple who did an excellent job. It pays a lot more than teaching, and that was appealing.
Then, one day during my internship at Balboa High School in SF, I found myself on patrol. My job was to find students wandering in the halls and escort them back to class. I came across three kids and began tailing them. As it was summer school, I had no way of knowing who they were (1500 plus students), so the strategy was to simply tail them until I could meet up with security (I had radioed them), and they would handle the physical details.
One of the kids asked me, "Why should I go back to class?"
I explained: " if you go to class and do well you might get into college. If you get into college and do well, you might get to do the extra 1.5 years and become a teacher. If you do three years as a teacher, you might be able to get into a program that makes you an administrator. If you get to be an administrator, you will get paid $85,000/10 month plus plus(longer than teachers)school year to walk behind kids and tell them to get back into class! It's not a hard job, once you get to that level."
Once I finished my little speech, I knew I was never going to be an administrator. 20% of being a leader is changing bedpans, for sure, for sure.
If you are going to dump the administrators, then please plan on building holding cells, and hiring burly bouncers to take the disruptive little darlings out of the classes as needed and store them until their parent(s)/guardian picks them up.
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I wrote the following in response to some local idiots who were going to save money by getting rid of the principals and other administrators.
About 85% of your education tax dollar goes to pay teachers' salaries and benefits. Very little is left over for books, supplies, and administrators.
A great deal of time the administrators are working with students who have become such a problem in the classrooms that they have been kicked out by the teachers. The also deal with the parents of these students....and the the cops and the lawyers.
When not so occupied, they deal with broken stuff around the facilities, and getting downtown or the District office to send someone out to fix it. After that they attend to WASC (recertification) meetings at least every six years for an entire year. Ah yes, settling disputes within departments among teachers, or between departments among teachers, that's another fun activity.
Somewhere in here they look into building new facilities and getting funding, and getting out the vote. How about a PTSA meeting each month, and God knows how many athletic events, band concerts, and art exhibits they attend? Miss any of these and at least one parent or student will either be crushed or angry or both.
As a teacher of 30 years I actually went most of the way through the process of getting an admin credential, having worked with at least a couple who did an excellent job. It pays a lot more than teaching, and that was appealing.
Then, one day during my internship at Balboa High School in SF, I found myself on patrol. My job was to find students wandering in the halls and escort them back to class. I came across three kids and began tailing them. As it was summer school, I had no way of knowing who they were (1500 plus students), so the strategy was to simply tail them until I could meet up with security (I had radioed them), and they would handle the physical details.
One of the kids asked me, "Why should I go back to class?"
I explained: " if you go to class and do well you might get into college. If you get into college and do well, you might get to do the extra 1.5 years and become a teacher. If you do three years as a teacher, you might be able to get into a program that makes you an administrator. If you get to be an administrator, you will get paid $85,000/10 month plus plus(longer than teachers)school year to walk behind kids and tell them to get back into class! It's not a hard job, once you get to that level."
Once I finished my little speech, I knew I was never going to be an administrator. 20% of being a leader is changing bedpans, for sure, for sure.
If you are going to dump the administrators, then please plan on building holding cells, and hiring burly bouncers to take the disruptive little darlings out of the classes as needed and store them until their parent(s)/guardian picks them up.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Mapping Cell Phone Coverage and Failures
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I seem to recall that The Union or somebody took a crack at this a while back. I just located a site called www.cellreception.com which has a convenient but somewhat buggy reporting and listing capability. Make sure you check every box, or it erases everything and you have to start over. I always CTRL C, so I saved having to retype. You do not have to register at all to post. Having just recently graduated to a tethered cell phone for an internet connection, and after 30 days, having run into some problems with my Verizon Wireless XV6800 reception out here, I posted the following:
Typcially I get 3 to 4 bars. You have to go down Sweetland Road about 1/2 from the center of North San Juan on hiway49. We have acreage, and the phone works everywhere except in the deepest and most sheltered canyons. Our house is 3.8 miles from the tower on Oregon House Peak, across the Yuba river canyons.
The data side (1x, not full EVO) worked beautifully for the first 30 days, and then began pooping out. Three service calls, and now it would appear that the tower is conked for some reason, or else they've figured out how to fap me just when I'm at home. If the latter is the case, I will drop the service. It throttles down to 1/2 of dial up speed, or useless. If they do not get it up and running soon, I will report back. When it is running, I only see 1x, not full EVO. 1x is still two to 4 times faster than good dialup. Lat 39, 22 Long 121, 7.
The phone works fine at full EVO speeds just 25 minutes away in Nevada City, so the problem is not in the phone. I drive there, it works great. I drive home, it runs at 1/2 dialup speed.
***********************************************************************************
If enough people use this, then we can all get a better idea of what the companies are offering, and we can keep tabs on their "Fair Access Policies." I'm nowhere near the supposed 5 gig limit for Verizon. I did notice that the Oregon House Peak tower had an exceptionally bright strobe on it a couple of nights back, but is now back to the nice dim red bulb of yesteryear. Maybe Verizon's tower blew over ?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
On Ghetto Schools. A Few Observations
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I've saved this from a post made elsewhere, in the LA Times Homeroom Blog. This is still rather rough as an essay, but it may prove useful anyway.
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I've saved this from a post made elsewhere, in the LA Times Homeroom Blog. This is still rather rough as an essay, but it may prove useful anyway.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Composting Toilets As Emergency Backups
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This is in regards the Royal Gorge proposal to stack miniMaco-miniums as high as possbile at Serene Lakes, near Donner Summit and Sugar Bowl, and to dump the sewage into the Yuba river.
My first suggestion is to monitor the UKnowWhat out of the river (pun intended). If the limits set are ever exceeded, even once, all the owners forfeit their property to the county, which will tear down what's not needed and build a park and homeless shelters, treading lightly on the land. Fines merely get passed on to the new owners in the fine, fine print, and are thus ineffective. Build it right the first time, or don't build it at all, and sell the land to someone who can figure it out correctly. Oh, you lose money ? That's called the invisible hand of the market. Nobody promised develpers a rose garden.
My follow-up is:
Actually, Composting Toilets Should be Required...
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This is in regards the Royal Gorge proposal to stack miniMaco-miniums as high as possbile at Serene Lakes, near Donner Summit and Sugar Bowl, and to dump the sewage into the Yuba river.
My first suggestion is to monitor the UKnowWhat out of the river (pun intended). If the limits set are ever exceeded, even once, all the owners forfeit their property to the county, which will tear down what's not needed and build a park and homeless shelters, treading lightly on the land. Fines merely get passed on to the new owners in the fine, fine print, and are thus ineffective. Build it right the first time, or don't build it at all, and sell the land to someone who can figure it out correctly. Oh, you lose money ? That's called the invisible hand of the market. Nobody promised develpers a rose garden.
My follow-up is:
Actually, Composting Toilets Should be Required...
should the pollution limits be approached within 10 % of the maximum allowed. Each dwelling would have to have at least one. Install remotely activated valves to cut the water off to the regular toilets to insure compliance. Of course the developer will design the system so that these composting toilets, "should never be needed, except in extreme emergencies." A simple closet, with a simple toilet. That's all I ask. The closet will probably be instantly filled with stuff, and since the toilet platz itself takes up very little room in the closet, it will hardly be noticed, until it is needed.
by Keachie on Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:25:06 PST
This system could be made a part of permitting in all environmentally sensitive areas where Macs and mini Macs are to be built.
by Keachie on Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:25:06 PST
This system could be made a part of permitting in all environmentally sensitive areas where Macs and mini Macs are to be built.
Nobles vs. the Serfs, On the Internet
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Well, it the Beginning of the End. The Wild West Days of the Internet as going to fade as fast as the sun sets on the knife edge of the Sierra from the eastern slopes after a thunderstorm.
The following article outlines a plan to start charging for net usage the same way they charge for peak cell minutes....minute by minute. With that will come the ghetto kid who can't get the answers on-line, while his competitor downloads entire papers with pictures and all, and a PowerPoint presentation with videos to boot. Think of the small businessman too, unable to pay for information that allows the big box stores to crush on through. Day Traders ? Ha! As UC sociology prof emeritus Harry Edwards (architect of Black Power salute at 1968 Olympics) said in a lecture which was kind of a revelation for me at age 19, having grown up in the cozy womb of the Berkeley campus, 'Life's Not Fair!"
************************************************************************
Time Warner To Test Pay-Per-Download Plan
by Wendy Davis, Friday, Jan 18, 2008 7:45 AM ET
IN A MOVE THAT COULD reshape the debate about net neutrality, Time Warner will start charging some broadband users access fees based on how much they download each month, rather than assessing a fixed fee unlimited service.
The company Thursday said it planned to start testing the new pricing system this year as part of an effort to manage traffic. "We want the network to maximize returns for all of our customers," said spokesman Alex Dudley, adding that a small number of users currently consume a disproportionate share of bandwidth. "Ninety-five percent of our users would not be the extreme users who are driving this."
Once the test starts, new customers will be offered a choice of four plans that allow them to download set amounts each month--5, 10, 20 or 40 Gigabytes. As with cell phone service packages, those who go over their allotment will be charged extra. Time Warner hasn't yet determined the price of each tier. The test will start later this year with new subscribers in Beaumont, Tex.
Some advocates for net neutrality--or the principle that Internet service providers should treat traffic equally--said Time Warner's plan sounds like a better approach to traffic management than some other alternatives.
"It's entirely fair and appropriate for carriers who choose to do so to vary their charges to users based on how much those users are consuming," said David Sohn, senior policy counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "The key is to be agnostic as to what the bandwidth is being used for."
Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn (no relation to David Sohn) also supported the decision. "There are neutral ways to manage the network, this is a good one," she said.
By contrast, Comcast has drawn fire from advocates for slowing down visits to peer-to-peer sites in what it says is an attempt to manage traffic on its network. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating complaints by Public Knowledge and others that the company violates net neutrality principles by treating traffic to BitTorrent and other bandwidth-hungry peer-to-peer sites differently than traffic to other Web sites.
While net neutrality advocates say that Time Warner's metering plan is preferable to interfering with traffic to some sites, some are also afraid that moving away from unlimited pricing will discourage people from using the Web.
"Telling consumers they must choose between blocking and metered pricing is a worrying development," Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, said in a statement. "The best answer to any capacity crunch is to build the kind of high-capacity networks available in the world's leading broadband nations."
Public Knowledge's Sohn agreed that any long-term solution to bandwidth problems requires improving the infrastructure. "The ultimate goal has got to be a fatter pipe," Gigi Sohn said.
Today's Most Read
1. As Luxury Brands Sputter, Saks Tests New 'Off 5th' Concept
2. Time Warner To Test Pay-Per-Download Plan
3. Unilever Targets Young Women Who Watch Super Bowl
4. Ripple Effect: CBS Extends Reach Of 'Outernet' From Borders To Jiffy Lube
5. Apple Leads, The Entertainment Universe Follows"
*****************************************************************************
Having free and universal Internet access will probably make or break this country. Many do not know that the first "Internet" was developed for the Moon Shot back in the 1960's. Essentially it was an on-line database that all the engineers poured their work into, along with "key words" (today's "tags") so that the 20,000 or so scientists nationwide could log in and be sent printouts of work that was related to their own efforts. It was slow, it was clunky, it was invaluable.
As a sideline to the space shot, to pacify those that wanted money spent on education, they set up the same system, but filled it with every article they could find on the subject of education, again using key words and a search system. This was called the "Education Research Information Clearinghouse," or ERIC, which I first used in 1973 at the San Francisco State University Library. It was a free service, the government paid for the voluminous printouts, which I passed out to my amazed students in my Ed Tech classes. I customized each one to their area of specialty, and essentially handed them a bibliography for a doctoral thesis on a platter.
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Well, it the Beginning of the End. The Wild West Days of the Internet as going to fade as fast as the sun sets on the knife edge of the Sierra from the eastern slopes after a thunderstorm.
The following article outlines a plan to start charging for net usage the same way they charge for peak cell minutes....minute by minute. With that will come the ghetto kid who can't get the answers on-line, while his competitor downloads entire papers with pictures and all, and a PowerPoint presentation with videos to boot. Think of the small businessman too, unable to pay for information that allows the big box stores to crush on through. Day Traders ? Ha! As UC sociology prof emeritus Harry Edwards (architect of Black Power salute at 1968 Olympics) said in a lecture which was kind of a revelation for me at age 19, having grown up in the cozy womb of the Berkeley campus, 'Life's Not Fair!"
************************************************************************
Time Warner To Test Pay-Per-Download Plan
by Wendy Davis, Friday, Jan 18, 2008 7:45 AM ET
IN A MOVE THAT COULD reshape the debate about net neutrality, Time Warner will start charging some broadband users access fees based on how much they download each month, rather than assessing a fixed fee unlimited service.
The company Thursday said it planned to start testing the new pricing system this year as part of an effort to manage traffic. "We want the network to maximize returns for all of our customers," said spokesman Alex Dudley, adding that a small number of users currently consume a disproportionate share of bandwidth. "Ninety-five percent of our users would not be the extreme users who are driving this."
Once the test starts, new customers will be offered a choice of four plans that allow them to download set amounts each month--5, 10, 20 or 40 Gigabytes. As with cell phone service packages, those who go over their allotment will be charged extra. Time Warner hasn't yet determined the price of each tier. The test will start later this year with new subscribers in Beaumont, Tex.
Some advocates for net neutrality--or the principle that Internet service providers should treat traffic equally--said Time Warner's plan sounds like a better approach to traffic management than some other alternatives.
"It's entirely fair and appropriate for carriers who choose to do so to vary their charges to users based on how much those users are consuming," said David Sohn, senior policy counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "The key is to be agnostic as to what the bandwidth is being used for."
Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn (no relation to David Sohn) also supported the decision. "There are neutral ways to manage the network, this is a good one," she said.
By contrast, Comcast has drawn fire from advocates for slowing down visits to peer-to-peer sites in what it says is an attempt to manage traffic on its network. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating complaints by Public Knowledge and others that the company violates net neutrality principles by treating traffic to BitTorrent and other bandwidth-hungry peer-to-peer sites differently than traffic to other Web sites.
While net neutrality advocates say that Time Warner's metering plan is preferable to interfering with traffic to some sites, some are also afraid that moving away from unlimited pricing will discourage people from using the Web.
"Telling consumers they must choose between blocking and metered pricing is a worrying development," Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, said in a statement. "The best answer to any capacity crunch is to build the kind of high-capacity networks available in the world's leading broadband nations."
Public Knowledge's Sohn agreed that any long-term solution to bandwidth problems requires improving the infrastructure. "The ultimate goal has got to be a fatter pipe," Gigi Sohn said.
Today's Most Read
1. As Luxury Brands Sputter, Saks Tests New 'Off 5th' Concept
2. Time Warner To Test Pay-Per-Download Plan
3. Unilever Targets Young Women Who Watch Super Bowl
4. Ripple Effect: CBS Extends Reach Of 'Outernet' From Borders To Jiffy Lube
5. Apple Leads, The Entertainment Universe Follows"
*****************************************************************************
Having free and universal Internet access will probably make or break this country. Many do not know that the first "Internet" was developed for the Moon Shot back in the 1960's. Essentially it was an on-line database that all the engineers poured their work into, along with "key words" (today's "tags") so that the 20,000 or so scientists nationwide could log in and be sent printouts of work that was related to their own efforts. It was slow, it was clunky, it was invaluable.
As a sideline to the space shot, to pacify those that wanted money spent on education, they set up the same system, but filled it with every article they could find on the subject of education, again using key words and a search system. This was called the "Education Research Information Clearinghouse," or ERIC, which I first used in 1973 at the San Francisco State University Library. It was a free service, the government paid for the voluminous printouts, which I passed out to my amazed students in my Ed Tech classes. I customized each one to their area of specialty, and essentially handed them a bibliography for a doctoral thesis on a platter.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Boeing 777, Safety for the Crew & First Class
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If you look at the photos of the Boeing 777 at Heathrow, with all its airslides deployed, you can't help but note the spacing, and how it favors first class and the crew. Probably by a factor of two to one.
Pictures at BBC of Boeing 777
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If you look at the photos of the Boeing 777 at Heathrow, with all its airslides deployed, you can't help but note the spacing, and how it favors first class and the crew. Probably by a factor of two to one.
Pictures at BBC of Boeing 777
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
California Losing Tax Revenue, Closing Parks, WHY?
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The Bigger Picture..."I Have a Scheme..."
Bush's "I Have a Scheme," plan leads to a war which must be financed, where to get the money ?
Business will not grow without consumers, so start making ridiculous offers both in the consumer credit industry and in the housing market to gullible idiots produced by schools that do not teach how the world really works (ANYONE CAN GET RICH IN THE USA, but NOT EVERYONE can get rich, the system would FALL APART, that's the UNTAUGHT LESSON.). Encourage the banks further by making bankruptcy pay, for them, in most cases. The cash flows for seven years and then peak oil comes along and trashes the consumers' even faintest hopes of getting free of debt.
Consumers begin defaulting, begin getting worried, stop buying stuff, other consumers now out of work because if they make or sell stuff, nobody buys, downward spiral. What to do, what to do ?
Dump it in the lap of the incoming Democratic President, and continue to provide shareholders with dividends (Bush's real beneficiaries, it's so, so much easier to hide maxi greed in dividends and acquisitions than in corporate salaries), and have no taxes on the wealthy or corporations.
Oh, yes Virginia, there are causes of park closings way beyond, "the state hasn't got enough taxes." Pin the rose on the Elephants in the Room, still stupidly trying to make cash out of polluting black painted oil guzzlers, instead of designing transit worthy of the American Tradition of Invention, both in design and sources of power.
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The Bigger Picture..."I Have a Scheme..."
Bush's "I Have a Scheme," plan leads to a war which must be financed, where to get the money ?
Business will not grow without consumers, so start making ridiculous offers both in the consumer credit industry and in the housing market to gullible idiots produced by schools that do not teach how the world really works (ANYONE CAN GET RICH IN THE USA, but NOT EVERYONE can get rich, the system would FALL APART, that's the UNTAUGHT LESSON.). Encourage the banks further by making bankruptcy pay, for them, in most cases. The cash flows for seven years and then peak oil comes along and trashes the consumers' even faintest hopes of getting free of debt.
Consumers begin defaulting, begin getting worried, stop buying stuff, other consumers now out of work because if they make or sell stuff, nobody buys, downward spiral. What to do, what to do ?
Dump it in the lap of the incoming Democratic President, and continue to provide shareholders with dividends (Bush's real beneficiaries, it's so, so much easier to hide maxi greed in dividends and acquisitions than in corporate salaries), and have no taxes on the wealthy or corporations.
Oh, yes Virginia, there are causes of park closings way beyond, "the state hasn't got enough taxes." Pin the rose on the Elephants in the Room, still stupidly trying to make cash out of polluting black painted oil guzzlers, instead of designing transit worthy of the American Tradition of Invention, both in design and sources of power.
Too Many Lawyers, Or Just Out Of Control Attorneys
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Actually, A Country For, and By, Lawyers
Most Congresspeople have staff lawyers who actually do the work to make well researched laws. The Congresspeople merely take suggestions from their constituencies. Thus, anyone could be a Congressperson, with maybe one more explaining lawyer in the chain.
However, many, if not most, laws come pre-written by the lobbyists and their sponsoring corporations. Why something 100 million per year successful should have the right to bend laws even more in their favor is beyond me. Corporate Personhood may ultimately doom the USA.
Every law written has one extra beneficiary beyond the corporations, and that is one class of occupation. Can you guess which one ?
Case in point, will we ever have a tax on fees earned, by issues settled in or out of court, where there is a court filing, which helps support the court system ? Lawyers benefit from the court system the same way truckers benefit from the Interstate highway system. Truckers pay pump taxes, as do the rest of us, to maintain the roadways.
Do lawyers pay anything to maintain the court system, to hire more judges, to built more courtrooms, to make for speedier hearings and fewer post-phonements ? I don't think so. They like the system just the way it is. Bill both clients for the same hours spent waiting for things to be heard.
I'd suggest a flat tax of 10% on all income derived from a situation where there is a court filing, and an agent (lawyer, attorney, whatever), earns cash. All settlements must be known in detail to the IRS anyway, so there are no privacy issues here. The money collected goes to the court system in the county where the case is filed.
I'd also suggest a law that holds the spot of any working citizen who chooses to run for office, for that citizen, when his/her term(s) is(are) up. I would do this by paying the employer the citizen's full salary to help with finding a temporary replacement for the duration of the term. Should the employer go out of business, I'd provide severance pay for the out of work Congressperson for a time equal to the time served in Congress. This would bring other occupational groups into Congress, for a much needed change. Becoming a Congressperson is great for a lawyer's career. It's terrible for just about anyone else, especially those near the bottom of the economic chain, so they don't run for what would be economic suicide, unless they were guarranteed a win.
Do I think there's a snowball's chance in Iraq this will ever come to pass ? Not as long as Americans remain ignorant of how the world in general is out to screw them, and the powers that be continue to supply plenty of distractions. Just the top 10 advertisers in this country spent over 16 Billion last year. P&G at 2.36 Billion tops the list. Do you stink today ? We spend 2.36 Billion educating people on how not to be stinky.
You can thank Michael Dougherty, of Oakland California, an attorney, for my hard earned and expensive education in these matters. Without his amazing shinannigans, I would have never have thought this up.
BTW, a third young adult was involved and got killed, and will probably get a ton of money for his parents too. I'd love to see the money all go to videocams that watch...the crowd to catch other idiots in the act.
It happens everyday, I watched it growing up, but did enjoy throwing peanuts to the monkeys on the island, after a dip in the magnificent 1,000 foot long Fleishacker Pool, which was literally paved for a parking lot, about thirty years ago.
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Actually, A Country For, and By, Lawyers
Most Congresspeople have staff lawyers who actually do the work to make well researched laws. The Congresspeople merely take suggestions from their constituencies. Thus, anyone could be a Congressperson, with maybe one more explaining lawyer in the chain.
However, many, if not most, laws come pre-written by the lobbyists and their sponsoring corporations. Why something 100 million per year successful should have the right to bend laws even more in their favor is beyond me. Corporate Personhood may ultimately doom the USA.
Every law written has one extra beneficiary beyond the corporations, and that is one class of occupation. Can you guess which one ?
Case in point, will we ever have a tax on fees earned, by issues settled in or out of court, where there is a court filing, which helps support the court system ? Lawyers benefit from the court system the same way truckers benefit from the Interstate highway system. Truckers pay pump taxes, as do the rest of us, to maintain the roadways.
Do lawyers pay anything to maintain the court system, to hire more judges, to built more courtrooms, to make for speedier hearings and fewer post-phonements ? I don't think so. They like the system just the way it is. Bill both clients for the same hours spent waiting for things to be heard.
I'd suggest a flat tax of 10% on all income derived from a situation where there is a court filing, and an agent (lawyer, attorney, whatever), earns cash. All settlements must be known in detail to the IRS anyway, so there are no privacy issues here. The money collected goes to the court system in the county where the case is filed.
I'd also suggest a law that holds the spot of any working citizen who chooses to run for office, for that citizen, when his/her term(s) is(are) up. I would do this by paying the employer the citizen's full salary to help with finding a temporary replacement for the duration of the term. Should the employer go out of business, I'd provide severance pay for the out of work Congressperson for a time equal to the time served in Congress. This would bring other occupational groups into Congress, for a much needed change. Becoming a Congressperson is great for a lawyer's career. It's terrible for just about anyone else, especially those near the bottom of the economic chain, so they don't run for what would be economic suicide, unless they were guarranteed a win.
Do I think there's a snowball's chance in Iraq this will ever come to pass ? Not as long as Americans remain ignorant of how the world in general is out to screw them, and the powers that be continue to supply plenty of distractions. Just the top 10 advertisers in this country spent over 16 Billion last year. P&G at 2.36 Billion tops the list. Do you stink today ? We spend 2.36 Billion educating people on how not to be stinky.
You can thank Michael Dougherty, of Oakland California, an attorney, for my hard earned and expensive education in these matters. Without his amazing shinannigans, I would have never have thought this up.
BTW, a third young adult was involved and got killed, and will probably get a ton of money for his parents too. I'd love to see the money all go to videocams that watch...the crowd to catch other idiots in the act.
It happens everyday, I watched it growing up, but did enjoy throwing peanuts to the monkeys on the island, after a dip in the magnificent 1,000 foot long Fleishacker Pool, which was literally paved for a parking lot, about thirty years ago.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Union Eats KVMR's Lunch Interactively
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Currently local The Union newspaper is beating the pants off our local public radio station, KVMR, in the area of two way, reader/listener interaction.
Where the KVMR 89.5, is all about "here's us, here's what we do, like it ? join here, thanks for the cash," the newspaper is set up with a clunky but usable interactive forum, where readers can comment about the news, and about one another's posts.
Why doesn't KVMR get a full blown forum going like can be created with the software, vBulletin, so that listeners can talk amongst themselves about the shows and events, especially the pre-taped shows where there is no call in activity possible ? Just asking. I'll personally stake 1/4 the cost of vBulletin for the first year, do I have three other supporters ? My guess they'd attract more members than necessary to offset the cost of additional web management, but of course, the possibility of negative notions about management is a risk they'd have to take. The Union seems to be taking that risk in stride, and Jeff Pelline regularly jumps into the fray.
Pick your favorite hobby or activity, punch it into Google search along with the word, vBulletin, and I'm sure you'll be intrigued with what the cat drags in.
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Currently local The Union newspaper is beating the pants off our local public radio station, KVMR, in the area of two way, reader/listener interaction.
Where the KVMR 89.5, is all about "here's us, here's what we do, like it ? join here, thanks for the cash," the newspaper is set up with a clunky but usable interactive forum, where readers can comment about the news, and about one another's posts.
Why doesn't KVMR get a full blown forum going like can be created with the software, vBulletin, so that listeners can talk amongst themselves about the shows and events, especially the pre-taped shows where there is no call in activity possible ? Just asking. I'll personally stake 1/4 the cost of vBulletin for the first year, do I have three other supporters ? My guess they'd attract more members than necessary to offset the cost of additional web management, but of course, the possibility of negative notions about management is a risk they'd have to take. The Union seems to be taking that risk in stride, and Jeff Pelline regularly jumps into the fray.
Pick your favorite hobby or activity, punch it into Google search along with the word, vBulletin, and I'm sure you'll be intrigued with what the cat drags in.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Beating Heart Created in Lab, Consumer MegaHelp
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The Minnesota Lab that has revitalized a mouse heart by removing all the damaged tissue, and then bringing it back to life a week later, should probably get the Nobel prize for Medicine this year. So you live on an artificial heart for a week while your heart gets a complete rebuild, wonderful!
Want a human instead of a computer when you call into a MegaCorp? There's a complete guide for many major corporations at www.gethuman.com. very, very, useful!
This link came from reading:
consumerist.com
(no www)
Which is the American consumer finally fighting back.
The Beautiful American, check out the Microsoft exec who started, "Room to Read." Website to follow in update.
The Not so Beautiful Candidate.
Obama has just trashed himself with his attempt to capitalize on an out-of-context quote that mis-represents Hilary's views on the Civil Rights Movement, by ignoring the words, "get the job done." I will vote for Edwards (most forthright about the problems of American corporations) or Hilary (my wife says I'd better...:).
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The Minnesota Lab that has revitalized a mouse heart by removing all the damaged tissue, and then bringing it back to life a week later, should probably get the Nobel prize for Medicine this year. So you live on an artificial heart for a week while your heart gets a complete rebuild, wonderful!
Want a human instead of a computer when you call into a MegaCorp? There's a complete guide for many major corporations at www.gethuman.com. very, very, useful!
This link came from reading:
consumerist.com
(no www)
Which is the American consumer finally fighting back.
The Beautiful American, check out the Microsoft exec who started, "Room to Read." Website to follow in update.
The Not so Beautiful Candidate.
Obama has just trashed himself with his attempt to capitalize on an out-of-context quote that mis-represents Hilary's views on the Civil Rights Movement, by ignoring the words, "get the job done." I will vote for Edwards (most forthright about the problems of American corporations) or Hilary (my wife says I'd better...:).
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I have to jump back in here. Some of you are behaving as though the students are all the same, from the same background. They most certainly are not. Statistically, however, in a class of 30:
10 will be doing everything they can to get whatever education they can. If you had all thirty like this, there'd be no problems. This is why you can't blanket blame the class for tearing the place up. BTW, many of these ten would love to tell on the others, but will get beat up if they do, and even have their younger siblings attacked if they are too big to beat up.
Between 5 and 8 will be inclined to go along with these ten on many days, but they are not so desperate..
1 to 5 will have a serious educational problem, which requires special attention. They will not misbehave themselves, but they keep you from watching the remaining students.
Between 4 and 10 will be at school because that's where their friends are. You, and what you are doing, are a distraction from their main purpose for being. They will not often disrupt, but they will certainly not mind if there is a disruption.
Usually at least one, and sometimes as many as three students, will view making you miserable, by whatever means necessary, as a goal, at least 50% of the time. Classes with more than 3 such students go off like bombs, with a very short half life, and are quickly dismantled by saavy administrators, who cannot afford total meltdowns.
To make things worse, these students will have parents who were just like them when they were in school. And grandparents and great grand parents, and they are not necessarily stupid. In fact the are probably smarter than average, and each generation learns something new to pass on down to the next, Most importantly, how to scam school administrators and politicians at all levels. It's a perfect storm! Imagine 3 Chris Rocks in one room, and you get the idea.
Basically they are playing to the oldest game on the planet, "Look at ME!" For whatever reasons, some people do just not feel loved or acknowledged enough, and so wind up often looking for attention any way they can, including negative behavior. Trying to ignore them is the worst thing you can do. Give them what they want, but make sure each comment also prods them along into socially acceptable paths. If you can do this creatively, without being obvious or to the detriment of other kids, then you are a Master Teacher. I make no claims to being such a teacher, but will suggest that continually roving eye contact is one good tactic I learned back in Richmond Unified, from analysing videotapes I made of master teachers for Title One.To Those Who Are Blaming the Teacher: Under these conditions, with this diverse population, I don't care how many kids you've raised or babysat for, how firm as an adult you try to be, the odds are your classroom will be described as at least, "a little out of control."
One solution for this situation is found in juvie. There, a teacher, at least in Nevada County, can say, "you're out of here," and in come two burley guards, who lead the problem child back to his cell. It's wonderful! In 11 days of teaching I only had to do it once. The fear of it happening kept the rest of them in line.
I'd envision a ghetto school with plenty of cells, each one wired back to the classroom for full video and audio from the classroom, and a keyboard for text messaging out to the classroom, as the only means of communication for the wayward student. At the end of the day, the student is let out, to the custody of their parent(s) or guardian. The teacher's decision is never questioned. If America wants ghetto America to get an education, that's the kind of setup that will work.
These observations are based on my year at Gloria R. Davis in San Francisco, as "da Library Man."
Gene Burns on KGO 810 talk show radio in San Francisco the other night was asking for analysis and solutions, and these are mine.I reserve the right to make posts in the middle of the night with lots of spelling errors and then to come back and correct them the next day. I don't see as well as I used to.