Mother Jones has a cool video piece up about what St. Francis College students think of President Bush's economic stimulus package. Suffice it to say, the students' perspectives are much more grounded in reality than our aloof President. Check it out!
NASA got schooled yesterday by a 13-year-old boy from Germany. Nico Marquardt calculated that there is a one in 450 chance the astroid Apophis could collide with Earth. NASA had calculated the chance to be one in 45,000.
NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.
The schoolboy took into consideration the risk of Apophis running into one or more of the 40,000 satellites orbiting Earth during its path close to the planet on April 13 2029.
And to think, I was merely struggling with the quadratic equation when I was a wee lass of 13.
"I still have trouble sleeping some days," Erin Sheehan said. "It really does bother me because I still understand I could have been killed so easy, and there is no explanation why I wasn't.”
The statement above is from a student who was in her German class when Seung-Hui Cho opened fire on the professor and fellow students. It really saddened me to read her testimony. I could not imagine what I would do in their situation. It is something that many college students typically do not expect to happen, so there is really no preparation for it. "
The gunman entered my room. He shot my German teacher and then proceeded to shoot the students in the classroom pretty thoroughly," she said. Sheehan was only one of four students in the room not to get shot. She jumped on the floor and remained quiet while Cho went on his rampage. "I thought if I played dead then he hopefully would think I was already hit."
In remembrance of Virginia Tech, thousands of items (flowers, cards, condolence books, etc) have been sent to the Hokie Community. The archivist, Tamara Kennelly, is responsible for documenting how everyone beyond the campus dealt with the tragedy, when the world was joined by four words: "We are all Hokies."
I really hope all colleges and universities continue to send their condolences to Virginia Tech. This is a horrific tragedy that could have occurred anywhere. I admire the strength and optimism in the students at Virginia Tech. They continue to be passionate about their school and this unfortunate incident showed how strong they truly are.
I would just like everyone to please remember that this could happen at any university. Let us all remember the victims and wounded individuals of any mass shooting. We are all Hokies.
That's the message of an NPR story this morning about college graduates on the job hunt. It's not available in print form yet, but you can listen to it here. Apparently if you're anything less than an A/B student, you should "take whatever job you can get." Many companies are putting hiring freezes on in light of the credit market crunch. Additionally, many graduates are competing with more "experienced" people who are on the job market because they've been laid off.
Great. As if college graduates don't panic enough during their job search.
In presidings over a copyright lawsuit yesterday, a fan creating a "Harry Potter Lexicon" -- an encyclopedia of sorts about the world of Harry Potter -- cried. J.K. Rowling, the author of the infamous books, called the encyclopedia "sloppy, lazy and ... wholesale theft" of her work.
But it turns out Rowling likes Vander Ark's website, something the middle school librarian created as a companion site over the years. It's just that Rowling is concerned that the Lexicon could compete with her own forthcoming Harry Potter encyclopedia.
At this point, Rowling's creation has become to big for her to control. Harry Potter has become part of global culture. Clearly she has chosen to pick and choose which "copyright violations" she will go after -- and this one was targeted because it directly competed with something she herself planned to sell.
Once again, today's youth loudly proclaimed that the answer to our problems lies in efficiency, not ethanol.
A group of High Schoolers beat out over 250 college students in a Shell competition to build the most efficient car.
This competition is yet another example that we already have all the technologies we need to fix much of our little 'carbon problem'. If a bunch of high schoolers can build a 2,843 mpg car, I'm pretty sure giant corporate car manufacturers can figure out how to reach 30 mpg by 2020 (our current fuel efficiency goal and Europe's present standard).
The government needs to stop lavishing Archer Daniel Midland, Cargill, Peabody, Massey, Ford, GM, Chrysler and other traditional corporate overlords with research money for ethanol, advanced coal, and nuclear waste disposal. It is time that the government invest in technology deployment and forcing corporations to stop wining and adopt the most recent efficient technologies.
This switch from R&D to technology deployment will have widespread effects, from drastically and quickly reducing our Greenhouse Gasses to reducing the financial burden on low income families due to increases in energy prices.
So-called "Generation Q" is leading, will our predecessors follow our leadership and enthusiasm or will they continue in their own path leading to our doom?
A birth control pill for men is now a reality. You have read this right. An international consortium of physicians has revealed that the pill is a “safe, effective, and reversible” contraception for men. Gentlemen, don’t forget to take your pills once a day, or else a mishap may occur.
The preparation includes progestin, a key ingredient found in women's birth-control pills. It appears to function in an analogous fashion for men, suppressing "both rate and extent" of sperm production. Some men say they are ready for more participation. I guess using a condom is not enough and that is for the people who make the right decision to use one.
I have to be honest. I do not think I would ride this bandwagon of using this “male birth control” pill. I would be willing to take it but not enthused about it. Personally, I feel bad for women when they have to remember to take the pill everyday and if they forget, let’s not think about what could happen. If I am in a deeply committed relationship, I guess it would have to be some kind of compromise of course. I think there are enough preventive methods from contracting diseases; it is a matter of outreach and educating everyone on what measurers they can take.
Provo, Utah. Chad Hudgens was tortured outside a Provo office park. Not for conspiricy allegations by a team of investigators, but by his boss for low sales numbers. Mr. Hudgens volunteered for a "team-building exercise," went outside and laid down on his back with his head downhill (the previous excersize was an egg toss). The co-workers then pinned him down while their supervisor poured water on his nose and mouth. His boss told the executives that he was inspired by reading about the Greek philosopher Socrates, who is said to have once held a student’s head under water, then told him he must want to learn as badly as he wanted air.
Mr. Hudgens has now filed a worker's compensation lawsuit against his boss and company for using the method as motivation. The lawsuit has been catching a lot of national attention due to the intense debate over torture in Washington D.C.
President Bush has recently admitted to approving a meeting between top White House aides such as Vice President Cheney. During these meetings, they approved techniques such as waterboarding. Until now, Bush did not acknowledge that he permitted the meetings. In a recent ABC interview, Bush admits to allowing “enhanced interrogation”. The ACLU has called for Congress to investigate the executive branch's decisions.
Mt. Hudgens had a few thoughts to offer about his experience with torture. “I don’t know if the government should do it or not,” Hudgens said. “But I can tell you firsthand, because it happened to me, it definitely works. They didn’t tell me it was going to happen, but if they did, holy cow, I would’ve told them whatever they wanted me to tell them”. Can you guess what is not as important as breathing..? Sales.
Rinku Sen has a rather odd post on RaceWire. She* titles it "Dear Generation Disaffected:" which I guess includes me. She takes the anecdotal evidence of his intern, who said she couldn't find a place "to contribute." Sen then dives in to trying to figure out why this generation feels disaffected. But her post isn't very specific. Is she talking about all young people? Is she talking about young people of color? Or simply young men, like this intern? Is she talking about those seeking a career in nonprofits? It's unclear.
Thomas Friedman wrote the now-famous "Generation Q" column for the New York Times. Instead of trying to inspire a new generation to political action, he spent the entire column attacking us for lazing on the couch and plugging iPod buds into our ears. Baby Boomers and Gen Xers think because they don't see an exact replication of what they did when they were young, something must be drastically, desperately wrong. Read More »
TradingMarkets.com has an interesting perspective on how campaigns are targeting the much-desired Pennsylvanian youth vote by going online and talking about the issues that matter to young people.
The director of the Student Public Interest Research Groups' New Voters Project said groups like hers have become more sophisticated in how they get out the vote.
"If you apply the same kind of outreach tactics to younger voters as older voters, like face-to-face contact or phone banks, it works," Jahagirdar said.
Candidates, she said, are also more actively courting the youth vote by "focusing more on issues young people care about," such as college tuition costs. And Internet sites have become more sophisticated in recent years, with blogs and quick interaction, giving the Internet generation more of a sense that the campaigns understand them.
Apparently, campaigns weren't previously aware that young people worry about issues as much as older generations do.
Even Fox News has picked up on the relationship between the youth vote and issues.
If there's one thing this election season has highlighted, it's some deep divisions within the feminist movement. Today at Women's eNews, Amy Tiemann outlines how some older feminists claim solidarity with Hillary Clinton based on her vagina -- or as Tieman says "plenty of second-wavers have turned the campaigns into a test of feminist credentials." Many younger feminists, meanwhile, say it's not just about electing a woman. Tiemann says, "I am worried that modern feminism may go the way of 'The Greatest Generation,' something younger women honor as a historical legacy that does not directly involve us." It's a good summary of the debate among feminists.
Today over at RH Reality Check, Eleanor Bader has a piece about the "Choose Life" license plates I saw in Florida last week. They're supposed to be a fundraiser for women who choose adoption instead of abortion, but instead:
[M]oney collected by the DMV has been accumulating far faster than it is being spent. "In Marion County, we get $30,000 a year which is distributed to qualified agencies that promote, support or enhance adoption services," [Publicity Coordinator for Choose Life, Inc. Russ] Amerling continues. "There is no paperwork, no contract signing. The county auditor goes in every year and confirms that the money is being used in accordance with the statute. That's it. In other counties it's not like that. Many county commissioners don't distribute the money because there is so much red tape that agencies don't even apply for it. It's too burdensome. The funds are not being spent because barriers are being erected that keep it from being spent."
This means that the money raised by Florida's sale of Choose Life license plates isn't doing what its promoters say it is -- helping women place their babies with adoptive families. Instead, the funds -- approximately $200,000 according to news-press.com -- languish in state bank accounts.
Because the spending is so restrictive, by only spending on adoption rather than health care, diapers, or other necessities women who choose to have children and keep them may need, the funds aren't spent properly. Shocking that women who have children would need such things. If you ask me, this is one of those cases of waste, fraud, and abuse that the right is always lamenting.
A dozen Randolph College students visited the Chicken Ranch, a legal brothel ouside Las Vegas, last week as part of a course on American consumption.
The brothel tour was a natural fit for a class that tells students "don't just study America -- live it," said Julio Rodriguez, the director of the college's American Culture Program.
Each semester the course examines a strain of American culture and ends with a class trip. Past destinations included post-Katrina New Orleans, Walt Disney World and the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Alabama.
This year's focus on Nevada started with a professor's interest in water rights and conservation. It grew to include discussions of the wedding and entertainment industries and, inevitably, prostitution.
The most scandalous field trip I ever made was a trip to the local waste management facility.
An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune last week looked at how students in Minnesota might be affected now that student loans are starting to dry up. The article reports that the average student that attends college in Minnesota college carries a debt load of $23,375 -- that's higher than the national average.
The article says not to worry, however:
"There may be fewer lenders, but I'm not in a panic," said Jane Williams, director of financial aid at Concordia. "We still think there are plenty of loans out there. I don't think it's necessary for families to be worried."
Oh good. There are still plenty of lenders out there.
Via C&L. Marc McDonald over at Beggars Can Be Choosers laments the lack of "protest music" in today's popular music landscape. I'm sure people who are far more into the music scene could bring up more specific examples than I could, but I'd have to say that McDonald presents an argument that's wrong for a couple of reasons. There argument McDonald makes is once centered on stereotypes about class and race. He compares Paris Hilton and the Dixie Chicks with Bob Dylan, these are both imperfect comparisons. Read More »
The Zimbabwean people are still waiting for the results of the elections held almost two weeks ago. The opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, claim they won and that Robert Mugabe, the president who has been in power for 28 years, and his administration have been holding on to the results. The court is suppose to rule on whether or not the administration will be obligated to release the results, and the opposition party says that the people will act if the results are delayed even further. Mugabe has called for a run-off election, claiming that the opposition party did not get the necessary 50% of the vote to win in the first round election. The opposition party fears that in the meantime, Mugabe will continue to use violence to suppress opposition and intimidate voters leading up to the runoff. Mugabe has remained in power through sketchy means, to say the least. The 2002 elections ended with many accusations of widespread rigging and intimidation. Even this year’s elections are not without similar claims. Many expected the elections to be rigged. Attempts to skew the election went as far as outright force. In the time since the election, the opposition party, MDC, has announced that it won’t participate in the run-off because they already won a sufficient amount of the vote and Mugabe is trying to create an atmosphere of intimidation that will lead to unfair elections (the Washington Post has an article that details the implications of this). Indicators of military rule have already been established. Mugabe has continued to clamp down on the opposition. Key leaders have been arrested and opposition protests have been banned in Harare. Leaders from Southern Africa have agreed to meet for a Summit this weekend, including Tsvangirai as well as Thebo Mbeki, president of South Africa. Mugabe has pulled out of the summit last minute.
The situation in Zimbabwe raises questions of when problems in a country should be internationalized. Mbeki was slow to involve South Africa despite eagerness of other Southern African leaders. The opposition party has pushed for more involvement from southern Africa, referring to a history of slow response. MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said, "We cannot wait until dead bodies start littering Zimbabwe."
But what is appropriate action and who should be the first to get involved? My instinct is that other countries in southern Africa should definitely take the lead on this. They should continue to pressure Mugabe to resign. However, right now the situation is very unstable. If violence continues, passive support to the opposition party from a few countries may not be enough. The summit meeting this weekend may be a step towards international intervention. One thing is for sure, tensions will continue to run high leading up to Monday.
Before I end, I would like to point to a blog post by a Zimbabwean-born who now lives in Europe. I think it provides some important history behind the current situation and reminds us of how unpredictable the future always is. While Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, was fighting its liberation battle, Mugabe was the liberator. Today, he is the dictator that won’t let go. As he continues to clamp down on the opposition, we will have to wait for Monday.
The AP put out a story this morning about “Big Black Dog Syndrome” – the trend of people fearing big black dogs, no matter how nice they are. I read it and was completely offended. Okay, so not offended in the what-it-says-offends-me kind of way. But offended in that uncomfortable-because-this-sounds-too-similar-to-something-else- that-offends-me kind of way. Read More »
As you have probably heard, we are going through some rocky financial times. A “credit-crunch” fueled recession means that many financial institutions will have a harder time making ends meet, and this, of course, includes student loan companies, as the Washington Post points out today.
Higher education advocates are worried that these lenders are exaggerating the effects of the crisis on the student loan industry as a way to secure unneeded bailouts and get back some of the wasteful subsidies that Congress cut last year in order to increase student aid. They are also worried that all of the hype will mean debt-averse students may be discouraged from “investing” in a college education. Don’t worry – it is very unlikely that you won’t be able to get the loans you need to finance you education.
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