Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: "The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees in the homeland and the diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights, some of whom were forced to take refuge more than once in different places of the world. At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy, in what is called now the Arab Spring, the time has come also for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence."
Monday, September 26, 2011
Abbas Addresses U.N. in Bid for Palestinian Statehood
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: "The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestinian refugees in the homeland and the diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights, some of whom were forced to take refuge more than once in different places of the world. At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy, in what is called now the Arab Spring, the time has come also for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence."
Steven Brill's "Class Warfare: Inside The Fight To Fix America’s Schools" | The New Republic
Steven Brill’s new book is its title. The phrase “class warfare” has a double meaning, of course, and the book paints very clearly the deep economic cleavages that underlie the fierce education debates within the Democratic Party over such policy issues as charter schools, merit pay for teachers, and the role of poverty in achievement outcomes. In Brill’s telling, the education class war pits a heroic group of entrepreneurial philanthropists, highly successful hedge fund billionaires, and idealistic Ivy Leaguers who join Teach for America against somewhat grubby and grasping rank-and-file public school teachers and their union leaders, who often put their own selfish interests above those of the children. In looking out for what is best for low-income and minority students, Brill contends, Wall Street hedge fund managers are a much more reliable ally than the middle-class teachers who educate schoolchildren every day. Brill’s worldview is important to understand because it is typical of the outlook of the education “reform” community, including leaders of the Obama administration, and the president himself.
Brill’s narrative is almost comically obsessed with the Ivy League pedigrees of many education reformers. Throughout the book, he duly notes the reformers who are graduates of Harvard (Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, John King and Whitney Tilson); Yale (Robert Gordon, David Levin, Ravenel Curry, and Michael Johnston); and Princeton (Wendy Kopp, Jonathan Schnur.) In case we don’t get the point, he notes that the people Klein put in charge of firing bad teachers were “all Ivy League lawyers.”
In fact, social scientists universally agree that family poverty is a far more important predictor of achievement than teacher quality. And even the nation’s very best high-poverty charter school chain, KIPP, which enjoys all the advantages of self-selection, high attrition, and unparalleled philanthropic support, fails to produce college graduates two-thirds of the time.
When hedge fund managers argue that their income should be taxed at a 15 percent marginal rate, they limit government revenue and squeeze funds for a number of public pursuits, including schools. Is that putting the interests of kids ahead of adults, as the reformers suggest we should always to do?
...in his very last chapter, Brill does an about-face and acknowledges some of the serious limitations of the reformer model that relies upon superstar teachers in nonunionized charter schools.
All in all, Steven Brill should be credited for vividly highlighting the class dimension of the education war going on “for the soul of the Democratic Party.” One side, backed by rank-and-file teachers and their democratically-elected representatives, sees poverty and segregation as central issues to be addressed though education reform as well as health and housing programs; the other side, backed by wealthy interests, sees poverty as an excuse and unions as the problem.
Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, is author: Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai Dies at 71. She died on Sept. 25, 2011
Wangari Maathai: "I would like to say this: if the more than 4,000 scientists who have been working on this issue are wrong, this is one issue that we cannot experiment with. We cannot wait until the seas rise, the rivers dry up, and our people are dying and migrating and running away. We cannot wait to see more fires, such as we are seeing in California, erratic fires. We cannot wait to see the kind of floods that we see in Bangladesh, that we see in West Africa. We are already seeing islands that are literally drowning. So, let us not experiment with our lives and that of our children."
Kenyan environmentalist and zoology professor Wangari Maathai bcame the first woman from Africa to win the Nobel Peace Prize Friday. We hear Wangari Maathai speaking earlier about the violence she faces in Kenya and we speak with her colleague Terry Tempest Williams.
Michel Martin. TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Dr. WANGARI MAATHAI
The Green Belt Movement | Home
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya (Africa) in 1940. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964). She subsequently earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh (1966). Professor Maathai pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, obtaining a Ph.D. (1971) from the University of Nairobi where she also taught veterinary anatomy. She became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977 respectively. In both cases, she was the first woman to attain those positions in the region.
Democracy Now! Special Report from Troy Davis Execution: Did Georgia Kill an Innocent Man?
Democracy Now! Special Report from Troy Davis Execution: Did Georgia Kill an Innocent Man?
Troy Anthony Davis was killed by lethal injection by the state of Georgia at 11:08 p.m. EDT last night, despite widespread doubts about his guilt. The execution occurred shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the execution. Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds last night, where hundreds of supporters Troy Davis held an all-day vigil in Jackson, Georgia.Troy Anthony Davis was killed by lethal injection by the state of Georgia at 11:08 p.m. EDT last night, despite widespread doubts about his guilt. The execution occurred shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the execution. Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds last night, where hundreds of supporters Troy Davis held an all-day vigil in Jackson, Georgia.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says Georgia’s execution of high-profile death row prisoner Troy Davis last Wednesday may have violated international law, citing serious concerns that the rights of Davis to due process and a fair trial were not respected.
Truthdigger of the Week: Amy Goodman - Truthdig
Late Wednesday night, the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis, a man who had been on death row for 20 years for the murder of an off-duty police officer. Many people doubted Davis’ guilt after seven of nine witnesses in the case changed or recanted their testimony, and a number of people—from the pope and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to former President Jimmy Carter and an ex-FBI director—spoke out against executing a man who could very well be innocent. But as the Davis case held the world’s attention, the only news outlet to broadcast live continuously from the prison grounds on the night of his execution was “Democracy Now!”
Democracy Now! 6-Hour Live Broadcast From Troy Davis Execution: Did Georgia Execute an Innocent Man?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Penny & the Quarters find fame wasn’t so fleeting - The Other Paper: News: numero group, ryan gosling, jay robinson, youtube, michelle williams
Jayma, especially since she'd left their Woodbridge, Va. home to
study abroad …
They were auditioning singers, starting a label," said Preston. "My brothers and sister and I answered it. There were all these people there at Harmonic Sounds. It was really crowded. But when we sang, everyone was like, ‘You were great. You were great,' and Mr. Price (the studio manager) told us, ‘I want to work with you.'"
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship seeks to recruit, prepare and retain effective teachers for the students and schools who need them most. It is open to individuals—college seniors, recent graduates, and career changers—with undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences. Fellows will attend enriched, school-based master's-level teacher education programs, complemented by intensive mentoring during the first three years of teaching at high-need urban and rural schools. The Fellowships focus on four goals: transforming teacher education; getting strong teachers into high-need schools; attracting the very best candidates to the teaching profession; and cutting teacher attrition by retaining top teachers.
President Obama Cites WW Teaching Fellowships
At a White House event, President Obama praised the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and its partners, like the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Lilly Endowment, and the Ohio State Board of Regents, for their efforts to improve STEM teaching through teaching fellowships.Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Troy Davis Tragedy: Stay Of Execution Denied | MoveOn.Org
"... no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis'. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country."
Need Help With Your College Application Essays? Ask the Experts - The College Solution (usnews.com)
If students can answer "yes" to the following two questions, they have a wonderful essay:
• Is the topic of my essay important to me?
• Am I the only person who could have written this essay?
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/applying
http://www.usnews.com/education
Could YouTube Be the New Essay in College Applications?
Sunday, September 18, 2011
COPPA - Children's Online Privacy Protection
- Center for Media EducationTIn July 1999, the Washington-based public education organization The Center for Media Education (CME) surveyed 155 children's Web sites in order to ascertain how many of these sites infringed upon the personal privacy of young visitors. Included in the report was a list of the 80 most popular sites for children, as determined by the CME.
- Web of Deception: Threats to Children from Online Marketing, CME.
- Privacy Online, FTC report to Congress, March 1988.
Related articles
- FTC Proposes New Rules On Child Data Collection (informationweek.com)
- FTC Proposes Stricter Youth Online Privacy Rules (wired.com)
- FTC Proposed Changes to COPPA (metaversemodsquad.wordpress.com)
- F.T.C. Wants to Update Rules on Children's Online Privacy (nytimes.com)
Friday, September 16, 2011
More Than 5 Million Users Work Online With Zoho
Zoho.com offers a comprehensive suite of award-winning on-line business, productivity & collaboration applications. Customers use Zoho Applications to run their business processes, manage their information and be more productive while at the office or on the go, without having to worry about expensive or outdated hardware or software.
To date, Zoho.com has launched 22 online applications — from CRM to Mail, Office Suite, Project Management, Invoicing, Web conferencing and more. Zoho has received numerous awards, including an InfoWorld 2009 "Product of the Year" award, a 2008 PC World "25 Most Innovative Products Award" and a 2007 TechCrunch "Best Enterprise Start-up."
ThinkFree® provides a ubiquitous documentation platform to help users live in boundless environments.
ThinkFree usability extends beyond PCs and is perfect for Internet-connected devices, including thin client and mobile computing platforms.
The award-winning ThinkFree Office is a Microsoft® Office compatible application suite comprised of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics software - all usable online and offline.
ThinkFree Office can automatically install and upgrade over the Web with features such as Internet-based file sharing and storage, as well as end-to-end security.
Built for cross-platform functionality, ThinkFree Office is compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux systems.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics | Pew Social & Demographic Trends
Related articles
- Rich growing more wealthy on the backs of the poor,exploited and oppressed (americanunion.wordpress.com)
- Susan Scrupski: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics | Pew Social & Demographic Trends (pewsocialtrends.org)
Making It In The U.S.: More Than Just Hard Work | Minnesota Public Radio News
Morning Edition, September 15, 2011
Hispanics and blacks are the nation’s two largest minority groups, making up 16% and 12% of the U.S. population respectively.
Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics
Moreover, since the official end of the recession in mid-2009, the housing market in the U.S. has remained in a slump while the stock market has recaptured much of the value it lost from 2007 to 2009. Given that a much higher share of whites than blacks or Hispanics own stocks— as well as mutual funds and 401(k) or individual retirement accounts (IRAs)—the stock market rebound since 2009 is likely to have benefited white households more than minority households.
Related articles
- Making It In The U.S.: More Than Just Hard Work (npr.org)
- Documentary on Largest U.S. Mass Execution (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The blog is back « It's more fun than a TPS report…
What is cloud computing? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary
To do this, cloud computing networks large groups of servers, usually those with low-cost consumer PC technology, with specialized connections to spread data-processing chores across them. This shared IT infrastructure contains large pools of systems that are linked together. Often, virtualizationtechniques are used to maximize the power of cloud computing.
virtualization | Andi Mann – Übergeek
Andi Mann, Vice President of Strategic Solutions, CA Technologies
Andi Mann is vice president of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies. With over 20 years' experience across four continents, Andi has deep expertise of enterprise software on cloud, mainframe, midrange, server and desktop systems. Andi has worked within IT departments for governments and corporations, from small businesses to global multi-nationals; with several large enterprise software vendors; and as a leading industry analyst advising enterprises, governments, and IT vendors – from startups to the worlds' largest companies. He has been widely published including in the New York Times, USA Today, CIO, ComputerWorld, InformationWeek, TechTarget, and more. He has presented around the world on virtualization, cloud, automation, and IT management, at events such as Gartner ITxpo, VMworld, CA World, Interop, Cloud Computing Expo, SAPPHIRE, Citrix Synergy, Cloud Slam, and others. Andi is a co-author of the popular handbook, 'Visible Ops – Private Cloud'; he blogs at 'Andi Mann – Übergeek'(http://pleasediscuss.com/andimann), and tweets as @AndiMann.
Related articles
- Cloud computing changing data management (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
- 15 Government IT Innovators: InformationWeek 500 (informationweek.com)
- More Leaks, Less Faith in Cloud Services (news.dice.com)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Simran Sethi
Friday, September 9, 2011
New York Jobs
Newyork Jobs
"Professionals" to quickly and efficiently locate many opportunities that exist.It's
user friendly tool to help you match your own Specifications, Qualifications and
Requirements."
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Peterson Institute for International Economics
research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy. .pdf