Know thy enemy...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014920.html
May 25, 2007
Countering the Terrorist Mentality - State Department EJournal
Countering the Terrorist Mentality - State Department EJournal, May 2007: "This edition of eJournal USA, "Countering the Terrorist Mentality," provides a look at the complex, global problem of terrorism. Several of the world’s leading scholars in this field, including Walter Laqueur, Bruce Hoffman, Jerrold Post, David Kilcullen, Mohammed Hafez, and Mia Bloom, examine the motivations of those who carry out terrorist attacks and the techniques terrorist organizations like al-Qaida use to recruit and motivate them."
...even if it is you. Is this a First Amendment issue? Is there a point to their statement? (The larger the defined “enemy” the bigger the budget?)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WEB_SITE_TERROR?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Ala. Terror Web Site Angers Activists
By BOB JOHNSON Associated Press Writer May 28, 1:30 AM EDT
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a Web site it operated that included gay rights and anti-war organizations in a list of groups that could include terrorists.
The Web site identified different types of terrorists, and included a list of groups it believed could spawn terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents.
The director of the department, Jim Walker, said his agency received a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt the site unfairly targeted certain people just because of their beliefs. He said he plans to put the Web site back on the Internet, but will no longer identify specific types of groups.
... The site included the groups under a description of what it called "single-issue" terrorists. That group includes people who feel they are trying to create a better world, the Web site said. It said that in some communities, law enforcement officers consider certain single issue groups to be a threat.
... Walker said the site had been up since spring 2004, and had gotten a relatively small number of hits until it recently became the subject of blogs, he said.
Birmingham attorney Eric Johnston, president of the Alabama Pro Life Coalition, said he was concerned about any list that described people doing social justice work as terrorists.
I think the voters want it! (Translation: If I do this, someone may vote for me!)
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/57553.html
Extra Caution Required When Giving MacBooks to Schoolkids
The State Journal-Register 05/27/07 4:00 AM PT
A pilot program in Illinois is experimenting to see how giving more than 1,000 schoolchildren their own MacBook computer might improve education. [At least they have a goal... Bob] Giving a kid a laptop can certainly help him or her learn, but only when it's properly used. Technology opens students to the knowledge of the world as well as its threats.
An Illinois pilot technology program that will provide about 1,150 Apple MacBook computers to Springfield's public schools certainly seems like a great idea. Or does it?
While we don't want to appear to be Luddites, a recent New York Times news story does make us pause. It also makes us relieved that District 186 is taking its time and easing into the program to give laptops to its sixth-grade students.
Much has been written about the digital divide -- wealthier kids tend to have access to the wonders of the World Wide Web while poorer kids are often left in the digital dust.
Online Predators
The concept behind providing top-notch laptop computers to students is in part to overcome that divide. The theory is that the laptop computers could be a huge academic boon to students -- especially those students who can gain access to the Web.
Properly used, the Web can literally put encyclopedic knowledge at a student's fingertips. The Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, governmental and academic databases galore are just clicks away.
Unfortunately, so are MySpace, YouTube and about 18 gazillion porn sites. Parents and children are also now constantly warned about the dangers posed by online predators and pedophiles.
Like just about any tool, computers and the Web can be used for both good and evil. The question is does the positive outweigh the negative when it comes to handing out computers to students?
Pulled the Plug
The New York Times story detailed several school districts that had started laptop computer programs only to decide within a few years to pull the plug. The Times' story dealt with high school students who had been given laptops, yet the problems could easily translate to middle school students.
Students at Liverpool (N.Y.) High School were found to use the laptops to share answers on tests, to hack into local businesses and to surf the Internet for pornography. No doubt plenty of kids also used them to study, do research and prepare term papers.
Yet, in Liverpool's case, the laptops were not a panacea for improving student performance.
"After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement -- none," said Mark Lawson, the school board president in Liverpool, one of the first districts in New York to experiment with putting technology directly into students' hands. "The teachers were telling us when there's a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the box gets in the way. It's a distraction to the educational process." [Sounds like management (teacher) ignorance to me! Bob]
After seven years, the New York school district has ended its laptop program. That is not to say that District 186 should not proceed. However, it does seem that local schools should proceed with knowledge of all the potholes ahead.
Additional Support
Each MacBook is valued at more than US$1,500. Families will be responsible for their loss, [will they be able to “opt-out?” Bob] and are encouraged to get insurance to cover the computers. However, if such a program moves beyond the pilot stage, it also could be plenty costly for District 186 for both hardware and software replacement. In fact, one New York school district found that while it would cost $1.5 million annually to continue its program, there was no measurable academic improvement and a full 20 percent of the students rarely or never used the machines for learning.
Technology can be great. So can a simple pencil. However, neither one can do much of anything without a lot of additional support and plenty of oversight. [What? It's not a panacea? Bob]
Attention students!
Instructor who took cell phone cleared
Sun May 27, 6:57 PM ET
A special prosecutor could not have had worse timing for telling a judge he'd cleared him of theft for taking a college student's ringing cell phone during a class.
Special prosecutor Rob Ives had just delivered his report Friday in Tippecanoe Superior Judge Les Meade's crowded courtroom when his own cell phone began ringing.
Ives quickly left the courtroom, which has a posted sign instructing those entering to turn off their cell phones. Other attorneys waited nervously to see Meade's reaction.
As it turned out, the judge liked Ives' ring tone — the song, "I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)."
"It was the perfect ending to this little annoyance," Meade said.
Six weeks ago, Meade was teaching a business law class at Purdue University when a student's cell phone began ringing. Meade took away the student's phone after he said the student failed to turn it off promptly.
Meade said he intended to turn it over to the dean's office the next morning. But the student, in a hurry to get his phone back, called Purdue police.
Officers told Meade if he failed to return the phone to the student his refusal would constitute theft.
While Meade was talking with officers, Richard Cosier, dean of Purdue's School of Management, arrived and took the phone. He returned it to the student after lecturing him about rules against using cell phones during class.
Prosecutor Pat Harrington said he sought a special prosecutor to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
If you ain't a politician, you is a second class citizen! “It's not that they are free, it's that we must wait for them to die naturally...”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070525/od_nm/italy_grave_dc;_ylt=AnfvybvPt3TCO3kSfnMLeqTMWM0F
Italians cry out over free funerals for politicians
Fri May 25, 10:31 AM ET
A free funeral is not everyone's idea of a perk but some politicians in northern Italy's Veneto region defended Wednesday the right to expense their final send-off amid a public outcry about freeloading politicians.
Councilors elected to the regional government housed in a palace on Venice's Grand Canal have voted themselves 7,500 euros worth of funeral expenses, on top of generous pay, free lunches, parking, daily expenses and other extras.
For those times when you just want to tell someone to go to hell....
http://digg.com/tech_news/Top_20_Temporary_and_Disposable_Email_Services
Top 20 Temporary and Disposable Email Services
Now a days Internet has become a home to spam. Millions of spam bots crawl the web daily to find email addresses and then bombard them with spam emails thus destroying their efficiency and creating problems for users. The best solution to this is to get a temporary or disposable email inbox which automatically expires after a certain time period.
http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/05/27/top-20-temporary-and-disposable-email-services
... There are many advantages of having a temporary or disposable mailbox on the web. But here are some key benefits:
* Protect you from spam mails
* Protect your mailbox from exploits, spoofs and hoaxes
* Require no signup and/or registration
* Automatically expire after a certain time period
For research online...
Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web (Paperback)
by Tara Calishain (Author)
... Real-Time Research on the Web, Internet-search-engine expert Tara Calishain makes researching more efficient and rewarding for anyone for whom the Web is an indispensable tool — academics, journalists, scientists, and professionals, as well as bloggers, genealogists, and hobbyists. She does so by teaching the latest techniques for building automated information-gathering systems.
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