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Monday, September 26, 2011

Abbas Addresses U.N. in Bid for Palestinian Statehood

In defiance of the United States and Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations Friday pressing the case for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

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."

Obama Administration Secretly Sold 55 Bunker Buster Bombs to Israel 

Newsweek has revealed the Obama administration has secretly sold Israel 55 deep-penetrating bunker buster bombs, which could be used in any future military strike against Iran. The bombs were sold to Israel in 2009 just months after Obama took office. The Israelis first requested the bunker busters in 2005, only to be rebuffed by the Bush administration.

Steven Brill's "Class Warfare: Inside The Fight To Fix America’s Schools" | The New Republic

Richard D. Kahlenberg Reviews 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?

Studies show that teacher turnover is much higher in the largely non-unionized charter sector than in regular public schools. And burnout is much more frequent in high-poverty schools of all kinds than in mixed-income or middle-class schools because teachers feel overwhelmed by concentrations of poverty.

...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.

What Brill does not explain is how this classic divide, which fairly describes the difference between Democrats and Republicans, has become a Democratic civil war.

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

Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, teaching women to plant trees as a way to keep their water clean and provide them with wood. The Nobel Committee noted that her work stood out particularly against the repressive government of former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, who was no Maathai fan. He called her "mad" and described her as a threat to Kenyan national security, according to The Associated Press. Green Belt Movement
Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died on Sunday after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71 years old. In 1977, she spearheaded the struggle against state-backed deforestation in Kenya and founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted some 45 million trees in the country. She has also been an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and democratic development. She won the Right Livelihood Award in 1984. Twenty years later, she won the Nobel Peace Prize. A frequent guest on Democracy Now!, Wangari Maathai last appeared on the show in 2009.

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

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

Penny & the Quarters find fame wasn’t so fleeting - The Other Paper: News: numero group, ryan gosling, jay robinson, youtube, michelle williams: Nannie Sharpe always looked forward to calls from her daughter
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 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

The Troy Davis Tragedy: Stay Of Execution Denied | MoveOn.Org

ast night, Troy Davis was executed. Despite the lack of physical evidence, despite the recantations by seven of nine eyewitnesses, and despite a global campaign by more than a million people insisting there was simply too much doubt, Georgia put this man to death.

But in this moment of sadness and anger, it's up to all of us to make sure that Davis' struggle does not die with him. That the fight to fix a criminal justice system riven by racial and class disparities, and to stop our country from executing the innocent, is made stronger because of his example.

As Davis wrote in a letter when he was facing execution in 2008:

"... 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)

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

Principle of the IDsec protocolImage via WikipediaCOPPA - Children's Online Privacy Protection


In this title:
(1) CHILD.—The term "child" means an individual under the age of 13.
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information from children under 13. The new rules spell out what a Web site operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online.
The Federal Trade Commission staff prepared this guide to help you comply with the new requirements for protecting children's privacy online and understand the FTC's enforcement authority.

OPPA sets forth a framework of fair information practices governing the collection, access to, and use of personal information by website directed to children. The Act does not apply to general audience websites; however, operators of such sites, who have specific sections for children or actual knowledge of children using their site, must follow the COPPA regulations. Also, COPPA applies to foreign websites that are directed at US children.


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Friday, September 16, 2011

More Than 5 Million Users Work Online With Zoho

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®

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

Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics | Pew Social & Demographic Trends




Hispanics: The net worth of Hispanic households decreased from $18,359 in 2005 to $6,325 in 2009. The percentage drop—66%—was the largest among all groups. Hispanics derived nearly two-thirds of their net worth in 2005 from home equity and are more likely to reside in areas where the housing meltdown was concentrated. Thus, the housing downturn had a deep impact on them. Their net worth also diminished because of a 42% rise in median levels of debt they carried in the form of unsecured liabilities (credit card debt, education loans, etc.).
Blacks: The net worth of black households fell from $12,124 in 2005 to $5,677 in 2009, a decline of 53%. Like Hispanics, black households drew a large share (59%) of their net worth from home equity in 2005. Thus, the housing downturn had a strong impact on their net worth. Blacks also took on more unsecured debt during the economic downturn, with the median level rising by 27%.
Whites: The drop in the wealth of white households was modest in comparison, falling 16% from $134,992 in 2005 to $113,149 in 2009. White households were also affected by the housing crisis. But home equity accounts for relatively less of their total net worth (44% in 2005), and that served to lessen the impact of the housing bust. Median levels of unsecured debt among whites rose by 32%.
Asians: In 2005 median Asian household wealth had been greater than the median for white households, but by 2009 Asians lost their place at the top of the wealth hierarchy. Their net worth fell from $168,103 in 2005 to $78,066 in 2009, a drop of 54%. Like Hispanics, they are geographically concentrated in places such as California that were hit hard by the housing market meltdown. The arrival of new Asian immigrants since 2004 also contributed significantly to the estimated decline in the overall wealth of this racial group. Absent the immigrants who arrived during this period, the median wealth of Asian households is estimated to have dropped 31% from 2005 to 2009. Asians account for about 5% of the U.S. population.
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Making It In The U.S.: More Than Just Hard Work | Minnesota Public Radio News

Making It In The U.S.: More Than Just Hard Work | Minnesota Public Radio News
Morning Edition, September 15, 2011

Here's a startling figure: The typical white family has 20 times the wealth of the median black family. That's the largest gap in 25 years. The recession widened the racial wealth gap, but experts say it's also due to deeply ingrained differences in things such as inheritance, home ownership, taxes and even expectations.

And that's the difference. Study after study shows that white families are more likely than blacks and Hispanics to enjoy certain economic advantages — even when their incomes are similar. Often it's the subtle things: help from Mom and Dad with a down payment on a home or college tuition, or a tax break on money passed from one generation to the next.

Tom Shapiro of Brandeis University has tracked hundreds of families for almost 30 years and says the gap perpetuates itself.
"The larger the amount of financial wealth a family starts with, the more financial wealth it accumulated over that period of time," he says.
In other words, it's easier to get richer if you already are. Since blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have much wealth to begin with, they're less likely to have money to invest in the stepping stones to success — a small business, college or home.
Shapiro says inheritance is a big factor when it comes to the racial wealth gap. White families are four times more likely than blacks to inherit. When they do, the median inheritance is 10 times greater.

This means no home equity to draw upon and no mortgage interest deduction to ease the cost of housing. recent study by the Pew Research Center
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.

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ESPO Paints 'Love Letter to Brooklyn' on Vintage Macy's Garage - WNYC Culture

ESPO Paints 'Love Letter to Brooklyn' on Vintage Macy's Garage - WNYC Culture


Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The blog is back « It's more fun than a TPS report…

The blog is back « It's more fun than a TPS report…

David Rajakovich

Develops training materials through the media of video, audio, and flash video. Develops and delivers traditional workshop-style training that includes consultancy on specific projects, practical exercises, role-playing, video, discussion, and presentations. Background in finance and economics provides unique perspective on how procurement fits in terms of creating value for shareholders. Conducted a study that established a prediction market that was published in The Journal of Prediction Markets in August 2009 (see link on home page for a summary). Has lived and worked on three continents (North America, Europe, Asia). Speaks Spanish fluently and has facilitated training in Spanish. MBA from University of Exeter – graduated with Distinction.

What is cloud computing? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary

Lotus competencesImage via WikipediaWhat 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.
Diagram showing overview of cloud computing in...Image via Wikipedia
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virtualization | Andi Mann – Übergeek

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

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Don’t Laugh at Me

Don't Laugh At Me- Creating A Ridicule-Free Clasroom (Teacher Guide Grade 2-5

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Simran Sethi

Simran Sethi

Simran Sethi has lectured on corporate social responsibility, environmentalism, and sustainability in media at Smith College, M.I.T., Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business, N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business and Department of Journalism, the University of Kansas, and Stephens College.

Simran has spoken at the California and Pennsylvania Women’s Conferences, The Investor's Circle Conference, Lawrence High School Young Democrats Club, Beth Haverim Temple, the Race to Stop Global Warming, the CERES conference, the Kansas City Women in Design Conference, the Minnesota State Fair, and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius' Inaugural Green Team Conference.

Friday, September 9, 2011

New York Jobs

Has been created keeping in view of the IT-professionals
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

The Peterson Institute for International Economics is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan
research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy.  .pdf