BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Marion Williams O Holy Night

With an amazing grace, a powerful yet lyrical voice, and unmatched improvisation skills, Marion Williams punctuated her sanctified shouting with gut-wrenching growls, low moans, joyful whoops, and soaring, angelic falsettos that made her one of the most influential singers in gospel music. In her heyday she was hailed by some critics as one the greatest singers in the U.S.

Williams was born in a Miami ghetto, the daughter of a West Indian butcher and a South Carolina laundry woman. When not working, her father would give music lessons, while her devout mother introduced to her to religion. Williams' own love of gospel music began in childhood, and she would sing and listen to it at every opportunity.

Track Listing
Sample

No Room at the Inn
When Was Jesus Born
Packin' Up


The 1961 release of Black Nativity, a gospel production performed on Broadway, alerted the theatrical set to the power and transcendence of religious music. The performance featured stirring vocals from gospel stars and text provided by noted poet Langston Hughes.


Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend)

The youth of the western world was celebrating the end of global economic depression and the approach of modern times during the 1930s and 40s with a riotous explosion of dance and music called Swing.  However, in Germany a repressive fascist regime under Adolf Hitler tried to impose its iron will on the German people, and keep them isolated from any international movements that threatened to undermine Nazi philosophy.  They were composed of 14 to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle or upper-class students, but with some apprentice workers as well

Similar conflicts arose when swing became more popular in other countries. In Germany it confronted the Nazi ideology and was forbidden by it. It was offensive to the Nazis because of its lyrics (that sometimes promoted free love and sexual permissiveness), but also because it was performed by African – American, as well as Jewish musicians. It was labeled as “nigger music” and “degenerate music.” That’s when The Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend) arrived. They were a group of jazz and Swing lovers in the 1930s, mostly concentrated in Hamburg and Berlin. The name Swing Kids or Swing Youth was a parody on the numerous “youth groups” in Nazism. They also took parody in their greeting “Swing Heil” which mocked the Nazi's “Sieg Heil.”

The female Swing Kids, meanwhile, wore long, flowing hair and penciled eyebrows, lipstick and nail polish. Naturally, the Nazis were scandalized by such wanton displays of Hollywood influenced degeneracy, as true German woman had a pure beauty and kept their hair in Heidi braids.

Hamburg was the hot spot, especially in terms of historical raids on swing youth, though Berlin, Frankfurt, and many other cities across all the countries of the Third Reich also had groups. Authorities and other citizens called the youth Swing-Heinis and Swingjugend — at first insults of a sort, but soon proudly adopted by the youth.In the beginning the Swing Kids were apolitical, but later, by the aggression of the Gestapo and Hitler Youth, they evolved into a non-violent refusal to the National-socialist culture (even though they were not an organized political opposition).

“(...) Our Youth must learn nothing else, but only to think like and act like Germans! We must get our boys into a Party organization at the age of 10, where they can be immersed for the very first time in the totality of pure German spirit.  Then, after four years, they will be transferred from this Young Folk (Jungvolk) into the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend).  — excerpt of Hitler’s speech at Reichenberg, December 2, 1938

Contemporary Nazi Reports and Measures regarding German Swing Youth.
The Nazi authorities considered the dance craze of the Swing scene a particular menace. Swing was viewed as a very dangerous foreign import, because it was rooted in immoral Black ”jungle music” with accompanying allusions to wild, indiscriminate sex.  Even worse, as far as the Nazi officials were concerned, Swing was a deliberate product of Jewish media moguls in America that, if spread to Germany, could contaminate the blood of  its own youth.  Youngsters caught up in a possible invasion of Swing would revert to more primitive forms of African-inspired behavior.
Youth Resistance in Wartime Germany

Jazz music, with its high spirits, fun and originality, was viewed of as democratic. Moreover with its ”non-Aryan” roots Jazz was considered a product of the American lifestyle and was therefore frowned upon by the Nazi’s who found the Jazz music degenerating.



The ”Swing era” of the mid 30’s through to the end of the 40’s originated from America. Swing music was played as set arrangements in a big band. This had the effect of limiting improvisation, which also meant that the Afro-American influence was less apparent.
They would whistle swing songs and sometimes walk with one foot on the curb, the other on the street — a sort of limping swagger they called the “lotter step.” (Whistling Eddie Carroll’s “Harlem” was the way the Frankfurt swing youth hailed each other. Berliners switched from “Goody, Goody” to “Jeepers Creepers.” Liepzig had “Flat Foot Floogie.”) As they were teenagers, they of course made up new, obscene lyrics to many songs.

“Swing Kids Behind Barbed Wire”

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Great Moonshine Conspiracy: The true story behind the movie Lawless

Franklin County Virginia was once called "The Moonshine Capital of the World”, where corruption and exploitation put working families up against the most powerful men in the county. The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial

Franklin County, Va., was called The Moonshine Capital of the World during the Prohibition. And you can’t make that much illegal whiskey without drawing the attention of the federal government. In 1935, more than 200 farmers testified about their role in a massive racket involving some of Franklin County’s most powerful men. Jesse Dukes of Big Shed Media brings us the story of the great moonshine conspiracy, as told by writer Charlie Thompson. Learn more about his book "Spirits of Just Men" at the Moonshine Conspiracy website.
Franklin County Virginia was once called “The Moonshine Capital of the World.”

"Spirits of Just Men" at the Moonshine Conspiracy website.
The Great Moonshine Conspiracy

Monday, December 23, 2013

Chess boxing: The City of London's new sport

Podcast
Tim Wulfgar, the president of the World Chess Boxing Association, told the Today programme's Justin Rowlatt that the two component sports have "a great deal in common".

He continued: "They attract a similar type of mentality - people who enjoy the thrill of the combat," noting that chess can be "absolutely brutal".

Mr Wulfgar also explained that since the sport has opened a new base in the City of London, events "have attracted quite a few people from the banking and finance sectors".

"People in the City like to think that they're tough and can fight, but also like to think that they're intelligent as well," he added.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Bob Dylan on Robert Johnson

I copied Johnson's words down on scraps of paper so I could more closely examine the lyrics and patterns, the construction of his old-style lines and the free association that he used, the sparkling allegories, big-ass truths wrapped in the hard shell of nonsensical abstraction-themes that flew through the air with the greatest of ease. I didn't have any of these dreams or thoughts but I was going to acquire them. I thought about Johnson a lot, wondered who his audience could have been. It's hard to imagine sharecroppers or plantation field hands at hop joints, relating to songs like these. You have to wonder if Johnson was playing for an audience that only he could see, one off in the future. "The stuff I got'll bust your brains out," he sings. Johnson is serious, like the scorched earth.

 As great as the greats were, he goes one step further. You can't imagine him singing, "Washington's a bourgeois town." He wouldn't have noticed or if he did, it would have been irrelevant. More than thirty years later, I would see Johnson for myself in eight seconds' worth of 8-millimeter film shot in Ruleville, Mississippi, on a brightly lit afternoon street by some Germans in the late '30s. Some people questioned whether it was really him, but slowing the eight seconds down so it was more like eighty seconds, you can see that it really is Robert Johnson, has to be-couldn't be anyone else. He's playing with huge, spiderlike hands and they magically move over the strings of his guitar. There's a harp rack with a harmonica around his neck.

But I'd never heard of Robert Johnson, never heard the name, never seen it on any of the compilation blues records. Hammond said I should listen to it, that this guy could "whip anybody."  I had the thick acetate of the Robert Johnson record in my hands and I asked Van Ronk if he ever heard of him. Dave said, nope, he hadn't, and I put it on the record player so we could listen to it. From the first note the vibrations from the loudspeaker made my hair stand up.

From Spirituals to Swing
An Early Black-Music Concert from Spirituals to Swing

And it completes a circle, since in the early Sixties the young Dylan heard the first reissue of Robert Johnson’s music and, he says, “Johnson’s words made my nerves quiver like piano wires”. In Chronicles Dylan says it was the combination of Robert Johnson’s “dark night of the soul”, Woody Guthrie’s “hopped-up union meeting sermons”, Brecht and Weill’s sardonic style in Pirate Jenny and the 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s surreal dislocations that came together and gave him his own voice.

Robert Johnson

Thursday, December 19, 2013

New York City Scores on National Tests Stay Flat

New York City’s scores, like all urban districts, have improved overall since the tests were first administered, though achievement gaps between black and Latino students and their white counterparts remain nearly the same. And the city, like most urban districts, trailed national averages. New York also posted lower scores than New York State as a whole.

New York City’s performance on national math and reading tests for fourth- and eighth-grade students remained relatively flat last year, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.

Federal officials on Wednesday released scores for 21 urban school districts. Compared to other large cities, New York City posted average scores on the math exams for both grades and for the reading tests in eighth grade. New York City showed slightly above average scores in fourth-grade reading.

Anyone interested in the state of our nation’s education should start by looking at progress in these urban districts, which face a concentration of the challenges all schools grapple with to some degree,” said David P. Driscoll, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP. “By volunteering to be part of TUDA, these districts gain insights and data they can use to focus their academic efforts.”

The National Center for Education Statistics began administering both math and reading tests in 2003 every two years to a representative sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students.

Here's how the New York City scores shake out, on a scale of zero to 500:
  • Fourth-grade math: The average score was 236 in 2013, compared to 234 in 2011. The difference in scores is not considered statistically significant.
  • Eighth-grade math: The average score was 274 in 2013, compared to 272 in 2011. The difference in scores is not considered statistically significant.
  • Fourth-grade reading: The average score was 216 in 2013, and was also 216 in 2011.
  • Eighth-grade reading:The average scores was 256 in 2013, compared to 254 in 2011. The different in scores is not considered statistically significant.
Trial Urban District Assessment
NAEP ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL DESCRIPTION EXCERPTS 

Full descriptions of the achievement levels can be found in the 2013 NAEP Mathematics and Reading Frameworks on the Governing Board site


NAEP Reading – Grade 4
Basic: Students should be able to locate relevant information, make simple inferences, and use their understanding of the text to identify details that support a given interpretation or conclusion. For example, students should be able to make simple inferences about characters, events, plot, and setting in literary texts such as fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction. When reading informational texts such as articles and excerpts from books, students should be able to identify the main purpose and an explicitly stated main idea.
Proficient: Students should be able to integrate and interpret texts and apply their understanding of the text to draw conclusions and make evaluations. In reading literary texts, this includes judging elements of the author’s craft and providing support for their judgment; for informational texts, this includes locating relevant information, integrating information across texts, and evaluating the way an author presents information.
Advanced: Students should be able to make complex inferences and construct and support their inferential understanding of the text. Students should also be able to apply their understanding of a text to make and support a judgment. For literary texts, this includes recognizing characters’ perspectives and evaluating character motivation. For informational texts, this includes identifying the most likely cause given an effect, explaining an author’s point of view, and comparing ideas across two texts. 

Urban district results are in!
What states are making gains?

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

How ALEC Serves As A 'Dating Service' For Politicians And Corporations

The American Legislative Exchange Council is a group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations. Together, they develop model bills that lawmakers introduce and try to pass in their state legislatures. Through these model bills, ALEC has worked to privatize public education, cut taxes, reduce public employee compensation, oppose Obamacare and resist state regulations to reduce global warming gas emissions.

On ALEC's agenda

[In] any area of really front line, controversial, ideologically conservative legislation that you see spreading in states across America, you're likely to find ALEC somewhere behind it. I'm talking about the fight against Obamacare at state level, the attempt to keep back Medicaid, attempts to reduce the pension entitlements of public employees and to keep low the minimum wage. And in education, the spread of voucher systems which are used to forward home education and private education, and to some degree, undermine public schools.

ALEC Exposed
 the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights.

ALEC is still supported by tobacco, oil, and pharmaceutical interests, but has lost around 60 corporate members in the fallout over ALEC's role in promoting Stand Your Ground legislation, voter ID, climate change denial, and an array of other controversial, corporate-friendly bills, the documents show

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

teacher-training-in-new-york-city

In total, New York City's public schools spent about $100 million on training for teachers and principals 2011 year.


2012 PISA test scores of public school and private school students
ReadingMathScience
CountryCategory%MeanMeanMean
United States of Americapublic93.01497482498
United States of Americaprivate6.99519486508
OECD Totalpublic82.37490481492
OECD Totalprivate17.54519514520
OECD Averagepublic80.69491489496
OECD Averageprivate19.2527522528
OECD Total = OECD Total – (OECD as single entity) – each country contributes in proportion to the number of 15-year-olds enrolled in its schools
OECD Average – (country average) – mean data for all OECD countries – each country contributes equally to the average
Data generated from http://pisa2012.acer.edu.au
Institute of Education Sciences
National Center for Education Statistics

NCES initiated this special study in an effort to link the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scale to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) scale so that states could compare the performance of their students with that of students in other countries. The study was conducted in 2011 with eighth-grade students in all 52 states/jurisdictions that participated in the NAEP mathematics and science assessments​. Read more about TIMSS.
Unclear where U.S. students stand in math and science
I don’t know what to make of a long-awaited report issued Oct. 24, 2013 by the National Center of Education Statistics showing that most U.S. eighth grade students are not at the bottom of the global barrel when it comes to math and science. The study extrapolates what students in every state in the Union would have scored on an international test, the TIMSS, had they taken it, based on what they actually scored on the NAEP. 

African-Americans
African American Quotation Posters

What does THOT mean?

The Meaning of THOT


Sexual Hookups Among College Students:Inequality Still Reigns
Like generations before them, many young women like Ms. Gadinsky are finding that casual sex does not bring the physical pleasure that men more often experience. New research suggests why: Women are less likely to have orgasms during uncommitted sexual encounters than in serious relationships.

InternetSlang.com

Sexual Hookups Among College Students: Sex Differences in Emotional Reactions: A Study

Hookups,” or uncommitted sexual encounters, are becoming progressively more engrained in popular
culture, reflecting both evolved sexual predilections and changing social and sexual scripts. Hook-up activities
may include a wide range of sexual behaviors, such as kissing, oral sex, and penetrative intercourse. However,
these encounters often transpire without any promise of, or desire for, a more traditional romantic relationship.

Keywords: casual sex, hookup, hooking up, human sexuality, sexual behavior, mating strategies, sexual
scripts
2003 article in The Washington Post and her 2007 book Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both, - See more at: Hookup Culture--Great Publicity, but Not That Popular
Justin R. Garcia   Research involving 600 college students led by Justin R. Garcia
Dr. Garcia said, “We’ve been sold this bill of goods that we’re in an era where people can be sexually free and participate equally in the hookup culture. The fact is that not everyone’s having a good time.”

International Academy of Sex Research and at the Annual Convention for Psychological Science

Similarly, a study of 24,000 students at 21 colleges over five years found that about 40 percent of women had an orgasm during their last hookup involving intercourse, while 80 percent of men did. The research was led by Paula England, a sociologist at New York University who studies the dynamics of casual sex.

By contrast, roughly three quarters of women in the survey said they had an orgasm the last time they had sex in a committed relationship.  The lack of guidance is common, Dr. England said. “Women are not feeling very free in these casual contexts to say what they want and need,” she said. Part of the problem, she added, is that women still may be stigmatized for having casual sex.
Homograph homophone venn diagram.png
Venn diagram showing the relationships between pronunciation, spelling, and meaning of words, for example, homographs,homonyms, homophones, heteronyms, and heterographs.

www.Homophone.com

Maya Angelou to receive honorary book award

The poet and author of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" will be this year's recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community, the National Book Foundation announced Thursday.

Maya Angelou
her latest autobiography
The real highlight of the National Book Awards ceremony Wednesday night in New York was hearing Maya Angelou break into song. Nobel laureate Toni Morrison had just presented the 85-year-old author the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. “It’s amazing,” Angelou said over and over. “It’s just amazing.” Speaking without notes and wearing dark glasses, she referred to the rainbow that God put in the sky in the Book of Genesis.

James McBride, a former Washington Post Style writer, won the fiction prize this year for his brilliant, boisterous book “The Good Lord Bird.”  It’s an unlikely comic novel about a young boy and the abolitionist John Brown. 

The chair of the fiction committee, former New York Times Book Review editor Charles McGrath, said that the judges had received more than 400 submissions. “Not all these books were good,” he quipped. As expected, Thomas Pynchon, a finalist for his novel “Bleeding Edge,” did not attend the ceremony.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Gettysburg Address: On Nov. 19, 1863


Everett copy (jpg). virtualgettsyburg.com. Retrieved from internet archive 2007-06-14 version on 2007-12-10.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln rose, adjusted his spectacles, and began: "Four score and seven years ago." The first two words rhyme, setting in motion a symphony of sounds. The biblical ring of his opening was rooted in lines from Psalm 90. Lincoln never mentioned the Bible, but the whole of his speech was suffused with both biblical content and cadence.

He first placed the dedication of the battlefield in the larger context of American history. In appealing to "our fathers," Lincoln invoked a common heritage. The trajectory of that sentence underscored the American ideal that "all men are created equal." Lincoln at Gettysburg asserted that the meaning of the Civil War was about both liberty and union.




Thursday, November 21, 2013

Editorial: Arne Duncan speaks the truth about Common Core

Arne Duncan didn't say it correctly, but what he said was correct, and nowhere is it truer than on Long Island.

Last Friday, addressing state school superintendents, the U.S. secretary of education discussed the outcry against the new Common Core standards. "It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who -- all of a sudden -- their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that's pretty scary," he said. "You've bet your house and where you live and everything on 'My child's going to be prepared.' That can be a punch in the gut."

Duncan's gender, racial and geographic specificity -- as if dads or black suburban moms or white moms in cities don't exist or share these feelings, or the feelings of white suburban moms aren't valid -- was thoughtless and wrongheaded. Imagine the firestorm if he'd marginalized pushback against an education initiative by arguing it was only coming from "black inner-city moms." But at the core, he made a valid point, one he stated more clearly on Monday in an attempt to clarify his remarks.

In New York, pass rates on standardized tests dropped by more than a quarter last year, after the state overhauled them to be in line with the new Common Core standards. That means nearly 70 percent of New York students failed the reading and math standardized tests.

College- and Career-Ready Standards

Social Networking Use - Pew Research Center

As of May 2013, 72% of online adults use social networking sites. Young adults are the most likely to say they use social media sites, while women and urban dwellers are more likely than men or rural users to be on the sites. Women, African-Americans, and Latinos show high interest in sites like Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Read more

Reference
    
Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
OVERVIEW
The number of Americans ages 16 and older who own tablet computers has grown to 35%, and the share who have e-reading devices like Kindles and Nooks has grown to 24%. Overall, the number of people who have a tablet or an e-book reader among those 16 and older now stands at 43%.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Five Video Games Your Middle Schooler Should Be Playing (Plus a Bonus One)

New Tech City: Five Video Games Your Middle Schooler Should Be Playing (Plus a Bonus One) - WNYC http://www.wnyc.org/story/five-video-games-your-middle-schooler-should-be-playing/

Ed Note: To go with our New Tech City episode on games that help your brain, we asked gaming expert Liza Stark at the Institute of Play to give a few suggestions about educational learning games for kids. if you don't know them, the folks at Institute of Play design games and game-like experiences to be used in schools. They recently published the PLAY List for the World Innovation Summit for Education. Working her fellow expertsh, here's her list.

Made With Play: Game-Based Learning Resources
Institute of Play; visit their website for many more resources around game-based learning for both educators andparents, including a comprehensive games and learning reading list (PDF).

PLAY Library

NYCHA Releases Reports Demonstrating Public Housing’s Significant Economic Impact

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Chairman John Rhea today presented findings from two economic impact studies to a Ford Foundation audience.  The first report demonstrates that NYCHA is an economic engine that sustains 30,000 jobs in New York City and State and contributes $6 billion annually through all of its spending activities to the local economies

WiFi on Wheels Rolls Into Public Housing



NYCHA’s Community Centers
In areas of the city where New Yorkers don't have easy access to broadband, it can be difficult to find a job – or even a build a resume to get started. The New York City Housing Authority is trying to help some of its residents by rolling in WiFi on wheels.
Digital Vans 



Bernard Williams and Joshua Stevenson run one of NYCHA's digital vans, which are fitted with computers with WiFi as well as a printer/scanner. The vans alserves as mobile community center, and the two men are its directors. They let visitors know about job and education opportunities and help them with their resumes

Need help using a computer or getting online? Digital Vans– essentially computer labs on wheels are available for NYCHA residents and community members to link to the Internet, search for job opportunities, touch-up your resume and much more.Digital Vans
Monday – Friday, 10 am – 4 pm

Monday, November 18, 2013

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Kontera.com 

Freelance Nation: “The Greatest Economic Transformation in Human History”?

More and more micro-entrepreneurs are using online services like Etsy, Kickstarter, Uber and Lyft to create their own jobs. Welcome to the new DIY economy.



Uber is evolving the way the world moves. By seamlessly connecting riders to drivers through our apps, we make cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers. From our founding in 2009 to our launches in over 35 cities today, Uber's rapidly expanding global presence continues to bring people and their cities closer.

Kickstarter We’re a home for everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of projects, big and small, that are brought to life through the direct support of people like you. Since our launch in 2009, 5 million people have pledged $830 million, funding 50,000 creative projects. Thousands of creative projects are raising funds on Kickstarter right now.


The startup with the tagline, “your friend with a car,” has developed an iPhone and Android app that lets you order a ride from a stranger in a matter of minutes. Lyft

Dirty Wars

Dirty Wars follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater, into the heart of America’s covert wars, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond.

William H. Masters ‘Masters of Sex’ Out of the Bedroom, Into the Clinic

"It often begins in the back seat of a parked car. It's hurry up and get the job done. The back seat of a car hardly provides an opportunity for the expression of personality." — William H. Masters
'Masters of Sex,' by Thomas Maier: Out of the Bedroom, Into the Clinic

Male readers took some solace in the fact that Masters and Johnson dismissed the “wide-spread concept that ejaculation, whether accomplished through masturbation or coition, is detrimental to the physical condition of men in athletic training programs.” They also noted that men with larger penises are not necessarily more effective lovers.

Dr. Masters had begun his early research by studying prostitutes. But he came to realize they did not lead representative sex lives. The pair put signs up on the Washington University campus looking for volunteers to participate in their sex research and soon had more than they could handle.
It was a different world in the late 1950s. There was an aversion to speaking about sex in public, much less studying it in private. Before Masters and Johnson, for example, no one had photographed the inside of a woman during intercourse. (They employed a clear Plexiglas dildo nicknamed Ulysses for the task.) “Before they could fix things sexually,” Mr. Maier writes, “they had to know how it worked.”


Couple Who Taught America How to Love" by Thomas Maier
MASTERS OF SEX The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love By Thomas Maier

Virginia E. Johnson, a writer, researcher and sex therapist who with her longtime collaborator, William H. Masters, helped make the frank discussion of sex in postwar America possible if not downright acceptable, died on Wednesday in St. Louis. She was 88.

Dr. Masters was a gynecologist on the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis when he began his research into human sexuality in the mid-1950s. Ms. Johnson, who joined him in 1957 after answering an advertisement for an assistant, worked alongside him for more than three decades. She was variously his research associate, wife and former wife.

The book made Masters and Johnson an institution in American popular culture. They were interviewed widely in the news media, wrote for popular magazines including Playboy and Redbook, and on more than one occasion caused heated public controversy. Their work was discussed in rapt half-whispers at suburban cocktail parties and even inspired a band, Human Sexual Response, a Boston-based New Wave group of the late 1970s and early ’80s.

More than any investigator before them, Masters and Johnson moved sex out of the bedroom and into the laboratory, where it could be observed, measured, recorded, quantified and compared.  ... Masters and Johnson gathered direct physiological data on what happens to the human body during sex, from arousal to orgasm.

It’s hard to believe, but the word clitoris did not appear in Playboy magazine until 1968, in an interview with Masters and Johnson, the famous sex researchers.

Women As Journalists

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Your Money 101

http://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/your-money-101/


What is the worst kind of debt to carry? Is it student loan debt, credit cards, a mortgage — or something else? Even the experts don’t always agree on which debts are “good debt” and which ones are “bad” so imagine how confusing it can be to consumers who are dealing with debt!
Getty Images/Thinkstock -

Monday, October 7, 2013

Anyone Still Listening? Educators Consider Killing the Lecture

Teachers are wrong to assume that their role is to only convey information, and that merely saying the magic words will translate into learning for students, Lahey said. “Our students can access lots of information really efficiently now online, probably more efficiently than we could ever relay it,” he said. “So the added value of interactions with faculty should be talking through difficult concepts, refining difficult decision-making, and otherwise doing the challenging stuff that can’t be done with a laptop or phone. I try to structure lectures with that in mind.”

Studies show lecturing to be an effective tool for transferring information: for example, a 2011 study of classroom teaching methods performed by Guido Schwerdt of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and Amelie C. Wuppermann at the University of Mainz, Germany, found that larger amounts of class time lecturing increased junior high math and science students’ test scores over time spent on problem-solving activities.

One of Lahey’s main goals as head of Dartmouth medical school’s curriculum redesign is to incorporate more interactive work, what he calls the “evidence-based (and fun) teaching tools,” that he believes will revitalize medical school learning

Peer instruction was first introduced by Eric Mazur, the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University and Area Dean of Applied Physics, to his classes in 1991. Mazur, who found that this method helped students understand better, said lectures are much like musical concerts — they can still be appreciated, especially as a motivational tool. But what’s changed is that the lecture is no longer the only way to transfer important information.

Mazur’s method of peer instruction for physics classes involves two steps: first, he “primes the pump” by assigning reading or watching an online video of a lecture outside of class, and has students annotate the parts they had trouble understanding. Part two happens at the next class, when Mazur revisits concepts students stumbled over. “I say, here’s a question, think about it individually,” he said. “Then, commit to an answer, write it down on a piece of paper, or sometimes we use clickers, or handheld devices, or whatever. But here’s the crucial step: After you have committed to an answer, turn to the people around you, find a person with a different answer, and try to come to some agreement.”

Transmedia storytelling

Transmedia storytelling is the “technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies” (Wikipedia). These platforms include film, online video, alternate reality games, social media tools, and mobile technologies.

But learning professionals have not yet explored in much detail the possibilities of transmedia storytelling for learning. Often touted as the future of television and film, does transmedia storytelling represent the future of mLearning as well?

Transmedia Storytelling



Recently in Fast Company, Henry Jenkins authored a great article about the seven myths surrounding transmedia storytelling. The original article can be found here


In transmedia, elements of a story are dispersed systematically across multiple media platforms, each making their own unique contribution to the whole. Each medium does what it does best–comics might provide back-story, games might allow you to explore the world, and the television series offers unfolding episodes.

To make your transmedia experience accessible you need to connect with your audience
  • on their terms
  • where they already are
  • with tools that they’re already using, and
  • in ways that they already understand.







Lawrence Lessig argues that the one-to-many mass media model of the 20th century was a stifling of culture and creativity. “Culture moved from a read-write to a read-only existence,” he said in a 2007 TED conference. In making his point that digital technology has moved culture back to a read-write existence, he shows amateur remix videos that became viral phenomena. “The importance of this is not the technique you’ve seen here,” he notes about the work, “because every technique you’ve seen here is something that television and film producers have been able to do for the last 50 years. The importance is that that technique has been democratized. It is now anybody with access to a $1,500 computer who can take sounds and images from the culture around us and use them to say things differently.”


Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Ronettes - Very Rare Clip!

The Ronettes
The Ronettes 1966.JPG
, Sonny and Cher, Darlene Love and the Blossoms, Bobby Goldsboro, Donna Loren, Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, The Shindogs, and The Righteous Brothers sing snippets from a medley of songs in this 1965 performance.

Friday, September 27, 2013

11 Things You Should Know About August Wilson

7. The Four B's
August Wilson never formally studied theater. He often explained that he got his education from the four B’s: the blues, the art of painter Romare Bearden and the writing of poet Amiri Baraka and writer/poet Jorge Luis Borges. "The foundation of my playwriting is poetry," Wilson once said.

1. Wilson 101
August Wilson is an American playwright best known for his unprecedented cycle of 10 plays that chronicle the 20th century African-American experience. Each play is set in a different decade and collectively became known as the Century Cycle. “Put them all together,” Wilson once said, “and you have a history.” (Photo: Sarah Krulwich)


The search-engine Google makes 17,000 hits for ''August Wilson'': study guides, video clips, homework tips, discographies, selected quotations. The Library of Congress lists 30 books by or about Mr. Wilson. Doctoral dissertations on his plays ponder such topics as ''strategies of coping with social oppression,'' ''power acquisition theory and the tragic legacy,'' and ''reforming the black male self.''

3. The Hill District

All, but one, of Wilson’s plays— Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — are set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the economically depressed neighborhood where Wilson was born in 1945 and spent his early years. “Like most people, I have this sort of love-hate relationship with Pittsburgh,” he once said. “This is my home and at times I miss it and find it tremendously exciting, and other times I want to catch the first thing out that has wheels.” (Photo: August Wilson's childhood home)

4. Pulitzer Prizes

Two of Wilson’s plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama— Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). (Photo: James Earl Jones and Mary Alice in Fences. Paul J. Penders, 1985. Courtesy of Yale Repertory Theatre)


Biographical Sketch of August Wilson
Interview with Bonnie Lyons

Properties on both sides of the Wilson home -- an adjacent building that needs to be stabilized and a vacant lot owned by the Housing Authority of Pittsburgh -- are part of the plan for the artist community, said Kevin Acklin, a member of the board.
Jeannie Zeck

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Where Did Syria’s Chemical Weapons Come From?

When Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was asked recently about the origins of Syria’s chemical weapons, he said, “Well, the Russians supply them.“ Hagel’s spokesman George Little quickly walked back that statement, saying Hagel was simply referring to Syria’s conventional weapons. Syria’s  chemical weapons program, Little explained, is “largely indigenous."

A Special National Intelligence Estimate dated Sept. 15, 1983, lists Syria as a “major recipient of Soviet CW [Chemical Weapons] assistance.” Both “Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union provided the chemical agents, delivery systems, and training that flowed to Syria.” “As long as this support is forthcoming,” the 1983 document continues,” there is no need for Syria to develop an indigenous capability to produce CW agents or materiel, and none has been identified.”

Soviet support was also mentioned, though with less details, in another intelligence estimate dated Feb. 2, 1982. That report muses about the U.S.S.R.’s motivation for exporting chemical weapons to Syria and other countries. The Kremlin saw gas as useful for allies fighting against insurgencies: For the countries that had actually used it in combat – Kampuchea, Laos, Afghanistan and Yemen - the authors conclude that the Soviet Union saw it as a way of “breaking the will and resistance of stubborn guerrilla forces operating from relatively inaccessible protected sanctuaries.”

Evidence gathered from what we now know was a sarin attack last month is also suggestive. According to an investigation by Human Rights Watch, one of the weapons used in the attack was “a Soviet-produced 140mm rocket.” Meanwhile, the UN’s own report shows a picture of Cyrillic letters on the remnants of the rocket.







Tuesday, September 24, 2013




Kelly Anderson’s acclaimed documentary examines the gentrification of downtown Brooklyn centering on the Fulton Mall. Anderson “strikes a fine balance between personal journal and political exposĂ©” (Variety) as she seeks to understand the forces shaping her borough along race and class lines - See more at: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Public-Programming/Calendar/Detail?id=20734#sthash.EiOU5OqB.dpuf

Battle for Brooklyn
We created an outdoor set at Cumberland and Dekalb in Fort Greene, and talked with a bunch of Brooklynites — old and new — about the changes they see happening to the borough, how they feel about them and what they hope for the future. My Brooklyn is definitely Our Brooklyn, let’s work together to keep it real, diverse, affordable and great!









Lili Balfour Lean Finance For Startups

http://www.spreecast.com/channels/lili-balfours-channel

U.S. Senators - Senate Conservatives Fund

U.S. Senators
About Senate Conservatives Fund
There are 100 members of the United States Senate — 2 from each of the 50 states. Currently, 55 senators caucus with the Democrats and 45 senators caucus with the Republicans. Use our interactive floor chart and the links provided to learn more about the senators. We've provided information about how long they have been in office, their voting records, and when they're up for re-election.

SCF is a grassroots organization dedicated to electing strong conservative leaders to the United States Senate. We do not support liberal Republicans and we're not affiliated with the Republican Party or any of its campaign committees.

SCF seeks to bring bold conservative leadership to Washington by supporting candidates who have the courage to fight for the timeless conservative principles of limited government, strong national defense, and traditional family values.

Our goal is to enact policies that will restore America's greatness. Therefore, we only support candidates who have the courage to:


  • Stop Spending
  • Repeal ObamaCare
  • Enforce Immigration
  • Defend the 2nd Amendment
  • Ban Bailouts
  • End Earmarks
  • Protect Life

U.S. Senate Races 2014 Election Cycle
There are 33 U.S. Senate seats up for election in 2014. Of those seats, 13 are currently held by Republicans and 20 are held by Democrats. Use our interactive map and the links provided to learn more about each of these races.

It’s time to abolish the IRS!
Key Votes Index United States Senate
The U.S. Senate holds hundreds of roll call votes each year. Identifying the most important votes can be difficult. Our list of key votes allows you to zero in on the critical votes to quickly see which senators are upholding conservative principles and which ones are not. We've also provided contact information for each senator so you can easily communicate your views on their voting record.







Monday, September 23, 2013

Smart Teenage Brains May Get Some Extra Learning Time

He [John Hewitt ] neuroscientist,  knew intelligence has a strong biological component. If your parents are smart, you'll probably be smart — even without a lot of fuss about the right schools and learning environments.

"Well, I may have been wrong," he admits. "It may well be that the environmental boost you can get, or the detriment you can suffer through adversity, may indeed be a little more important at a critical period in adolescence than I had previously thought. And this may especially be true for parents of very bright children."

What Hewitt, director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado, is talking about is a new understanding of the interplay between your genetic inheritance and how you learn from the environment. He credits another researcher, Angela Brant, for coming up with a new insight into this critical period in development.

Shankar Vedantam science correspondent for NPR