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A man wanted in a domestic violence case in the southern Arizona town of Oro Valley has turned himself in to police.
Police say 38-year-old Adam Christopher Sheafe surrendered to police Thursday.
They say a woman called police to say she allegedly was strangled and held against her will by Sheafe late Monday night.
Officers say Sheafe wasn't at the home when they arrived.
Police issued a warrant for Sheafe's arrest on suspicion of domestic violence/aggravated assault and domestic violence/kidnapping.
He's been booked into the Pima County Jail. Police didn't immediately know if Sheafe has a lawyer yet.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Story highlights
- "Ole Phil may be a little crude but his heart is good," Willie Robertson says on Twitter
- "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson was suspended by A&E
- The suspension followed Robertson's remarks about homosexuality and race
- A&E now says the show will resume "with the entire Robertson family"
Little more than a week after it suspended "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson for incendiary remarks about homosexuality, the cable channel A&E said Friday that it would include him in future tapings of the reality television show, effectively lifting the suspension amid a flurry of petitions in support of Robertson.
"After discussions with the Robertson family, as well as consulting with numerous advocacy groups, A&E has decided to resume filming Duck Dynasty later this spring with the entire Robertson family," the channel said in a statement.
In an apparent gesture to the advocacy groups, A&E said that it would "also use this moment" to broadcast public service announcements "promoting unity, tolerance and acceptance among all people."
Robertson's son Willie wrote on Twitter on Friday evening, "Back to work!!! So proud of all the fans of the show and family. Ole Phil may be a little crude but his heart is good. He's the Real Deal!"
The announcement came nine days after A&E originally suspended Robertson. It was immediately perceived as a victory by some of the conservative groups that had protested the suspension. One headline on the influential Drudge Report on Friday evening was "A&E CAVES"; another read, "Gay Activists Group Delivered Stinging Defeat."
Chris Stone, founder of Faith Driven Consumer, the group that gathered 260,000 signatures on a petition at IStandWithPhil.com, said in a Friday night statement that he and individuals like him would "remain vigilant as we measure whether A&E's actions reflect true tolerance, diversity, and mutual respect -- including their equal embrace of our biblically based values and deeply held beliefs."
The comments from Stone and other advocates signaled that "Duck Dynasty" has become a weapon in the culture wars -- and will continue to be.
A&E said on December 18 that it was placing Robertson "under hiatus from filming indefinitely" due to the cast member's controversial comments to a GQ magazine interviewer.
When the interviewer asked Robertson what he thought was sinful, he replied, "Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men."
Robertson used language that his family later described as "coarse." At one point he remarked that "it seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes!"
Furthermore, Robertson said that when he was growing up in Louisiana in the pre-civil rights era, "I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once."
He continued, "Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I'm with the blacks, because we're white trash. We're going across the field. ... They're singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, 'I tell you what: These doggone white people' -- not a word! Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues."
When the comments were published by GQ, gay rights groups, including GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and civil rights groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, alerted A&E. The channel moved quickly to express disappointment in the comments and put Robertson on the bench. But it said the action wouldn't affect any previously taped episodes of the hugely popular reality show.
One season's worth of episodes featuring Robertson had already been taped, so the suspension would only have affected future tapings in 2014.
An assortment of conservative and religious groups immediately and loudly protested the suspension decision by A&E, which is jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst.
Speculation ensued about whether "Duck Dynasty" would come to an end, at least on A&E. Some advocates said they hoped that a channel with overtly religious values would rescue the show.
The Robertson family stoked the speculation by issuing a statement that said, "We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of 'Duck Dynasty.'"
Inside A&E, a sudden end to "Duck Dynasty" was never seriously contemplated. The show is enormously profitable for A&E and, executives there pointed out in private, for the Robertsons, too. (Any shopper strolling through Walmart, where the aisles are stocked with "Duck Dynasty" gear, would recognize that.)
But A&E executives felt they had to send a message of disapproval after seeing Robertson's comments to GQ, partly because some of the channel's own staffers were offended by the interview. The suspension announced on December 18 sent that message -- and shortly thereafter, the channel and the Robertsons' representatives started to discuss a path forward.
"We knew we had a great partnership with the family," said an A&E executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because the channel and the family had agreed not to say anything publicly aside from Friday's statements.
Talks between the two sides took place on Christmas Eve, paused on Christmas, and resumed on Thursday, leading to Friday's announcement.
While some observers accused A&E of backing down, some of the advocacy groups that were originally dismayed by Robertson's remarks on homosexuality begged to differ.
"It's not really a reversal," Fred Sainz, a representative of the Human Rights Campaign, told CNN's Brianna Keilar in a telephone interview on Friday. "We think it's actually a positive outcome, and we want to thank A&E for their attentiveness and collaboration over the course of the last few weeks."
Sainz said that his group was "heartened" by A&E's plans for the public service announcement campaign. A spokesman for A&E declined to comment on whether Robertson or other "Duck Dynasty" cast members would participate in the campaign, but the channel is said to be hopeful that at least some of the cast members will.
"We've received assurances also that the Robertson family is now open to working with African-American and (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people to address the real harm that such anti-gay and racist comments can cause," Sainz said on CNN. "That's been our 'ask' since Phil's comments ran in GQ, and while it's a positive step, it certainly cannot and should not be the last one."
GLAAD took a more adversarial stance, stating Friday night that "Phil Robertson should look African American and gay people in the eyes and hear about the hurtful impact of praising Jim Crow laws and comparing gay people to terrorists. If dialogue with Phil is not part of next steps then A+E has chosen profits over African American and gay people -- especially its employees and viewers."
For supporters of groups like GLAAD, the "Duck Dynasty" debate was primarily about whether offensive depictions of minorities -- what GLAAD called "vile and extreme stereotypes" -- were acceptable in public discourse. These people said no.
For supporters of Robertson, including a number of conservative politicians, the debate was about whether a deeply religious man had the right to speak freely about the tenets of his faith. These people said yes.
To some degree the two sides talked past each other while the Robertson suspension became national news.
Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, who suggested on December 19 that A&E did not believe in the First Amendment, said Friday that he was glad the channel's executives "came to their senses and recognized that tolerance of religious views is more important than political correctness."
Jindal added, "Today is a good day for the freedoms of speech and religious liberty. The left is going to have to get accustomed to the fact that it does not have a monopoly on free speech and is not the only group who is permitted to voice its opinion in the public square. The left may control Hollywood, but they don't control the hearts and minds of a majority of Americans."

subset: commoncrawl


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- Number of children:
- 3
- Age of children:
- 25 and up.. 1 married
- Relationship status:
- Would rather not say
My Day Snapshot
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The NFL and the NFL Referees Union just announced a new eight-year deal has been agreed to by the two sides. The agreement is subject to ratification by the NFLRA, which will vote Friday or Saturday on the deal.
That is only a formality.
And as there will be a football game tonight between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens Thursday, the regular officials will work that national televised contest.
"Our officials will be back on the field starting tomorrow night," Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We appreciate the commitment of the NFLRA in working through the issues to reach this important agreement."
Said Scott Green, the president of the NFLRA: "Our Board of Directors has unanimously approved taking this proposed CBA to the membership for a ratification vote. We are glad to be getting back on the field for this week's games."
The terms of the agreement:
Eight-year term covering the 2012-2019 seasons.
The current defined benefit pension plan will remain in place for current officials through the 2016 season (or until the official earns 20 years of service). The defined benefit plan will then be frozen.
Retirement benefits will be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution arrangement, which will have two elements: an annual league contribution made on behalf of each game official that will begin with an average of more than $18,000 per official and increase to more than $23,000 per official in 2019, and a partial match on any additional contribution that an official makes to his 401(k) account.
Apart from their benefit package, the game officials' compensation will increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019.
Beginning with the 2013 season, the NFL will have the option of hiring a number of officials on a full-time basis to work year-round, including on the field.
The NFL will have the option to retain additional officials for training and development purposes, and may assign those additional officials to work NFL games. The number of additional officials will be determined by the NFL.
The end of this labor impasse will be welcomed in most every NFL outpost where talk of the replacements often leaked from the field to the sideline to the locker room.
Most people will be glad to see the replacements go. But don't count Dolphins coach Joe Philbin among their critics.
"I'm sure your jobs are challenging and tough, but officials' jobs are not easy," Philbin said Wednesday. "Let's face it. I don't care how much experience you have, how many years you've been in the league. It's just like coaching. I've been doing this 29 years and I certainly don't profess to have all the answers. I think the guys that have been officiating have been good. They've been communicating; I think they've been hustling out there, so whatever happens, happens."


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Nelson Mandela, leader of South Africa helped bring about social change and the end of apartheid
Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa who was imprisoned for 27 years for his efforts to bring about social change, died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95. He spent much of his life challenging the idea that the white minority should rule South Africa, and he is one of the people responsible for causing the end of apartheid in that nation. But while many remember him as a hero and as the social conscience of his nation, his life was not without controversy. He was a complex man, and his strengths—and weaknesses—as a leader, would make a good research paper topic in political science or international relations classes.
Mandela's early years
Born in 1918, Mandela was a founder of the African National Congress (ANC), a socialist group dedicated to democracy and the end of apartheid, the system under which the white South African minority legally ruled over and oppressed black South Africans. Read more


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Tonight on Nightly Business Report - The NASDAQ's long road back to a 12-year high. Which stocks are driving the gains and are there reasons to buy unloved old tech? And, do you remember what happened three years ago today? Hint - it rattled Wall Street and investors.
Visit the Website: http://nbr.com/
Episode #32109 / Length: 26 minutes


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Sunday, October 06, 2013
Bourbon Quotes
Wayne Catalano (winning trainer of Poker Player)
"I saw (jockey Channing Hill) was saving ground around the corner; everything was working out real nice. When he turned for home, he got clear right there, and I thought we had a big shot. I had two horses in the race. I was watching the 1 horse (School On a Hill) down on the rail. He was bottle-necked in there. I was hoping he'd get a little room, then all of a sudden here comes Poker Player on the outside getting clear running, and here we are."
"Mr. (owner Gary) West and (racing manager) Benny Glass – we'll talk it over, but I'm sure they'll want to go to the Breeders' Cup."
Channing Hill (winning rider)
"He put me in a really good spot, just even down the backside when he broke so well. He relaxed nice into the backside. He got a little jumbled down the backside and into the turn, but he really matured even from the last race at Kentucky Downs into today. He really found himself and when I took him out I knew that we were going to be really tough to beat. He was a still a little green (early in the race), but he was absolutely professional getting to the wire."
John Velazquez (rider of runner-up Bashert)
"We had a decent enough trip. They kind of backed up right in my face on the backstretch and I was finally able to pull him out and tried to get him to relax behind the other two horses. Then outside, another horse made a premature move and that cost me a little bit."
On seeming to be headed to victory a few jumps from the finish
"When he took the lead, he pulled up. He was looking out in the infield and the horse coming on the outside he didn't even pay attention to; he just kept looking in the infield."
Eddie Castro (rider of third-place finisher Bon Accord)
"I stayed in a little pocket. When we came into the stretch he passed some of the horses a little bit. He came on a little more at the end at the eighth pole."
Ricardo Santana Jr. (rider of fourth-place finisher All Cash)
"My horse put in a beautiful (effort). I was stopped everywhere (in the race). I tried to find him some room; I tried to find a hole. But my horse still tried to finish nice."
Brian Hernandez Jr. (rider of sixth-place finisher and 2-1 favorite Boji Moon)
"It might have been the Polytrack today; we don't really know. (Trainer) Chris (Richard) will get him back to the barn and see what happens. We had the position (he likes) to be in. He didn't get it done from that point."
Chris Richard (trainer of Boji Moon)
"He broke really good and got himself into the race early. I don't think he was quite into the bit as he normally is. That was a little concern of mine. The (all-weather) surface was a question mark with him (but) I am not going to use it as an excuse. I don't think it is his favorite kind of footing. I think he will be able to get two turns, but not on (all-weather) footing.
"Our goal with him has always been the spring races (at Oaklawn Park). We'll probably give him a break and point for that series."
Read more articles in the Keeneland category.


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Health insurance help offered in three languages at Elliot facilities
March 04. 2014 5:38PM
MANCHESTER — Free help in English, Spanish and Portuguese is being offered to people who need to enroll in a qualified health insurance plan by the March 31 deadline.
Trained assisters from the Foundation for Healthy Communities will be on hand at the Elliot Hospital from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays through March 26.
The free assistance will also be available at the Elliot at River's Edge from 2 to 6 p.m. on March 13, 20 and 27.
People needing assistance should bring with them: Social Security number, or proper documents for legal immigrants; employer information such as W-2 form, pay stub or tax statement; documentation of household income information, even for household members not applying for insurance; any current health insurance information; and a completed employer coverage tool for every job-based health plan for which the applicant or someone in the household is eligible.
That coverage form can be obtained from the employer or downloaded from www.health.gov. For more information, contact Ann Walls at the Foundation for Healthy Communities at 603-415-4299.


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California Department of Transportation
Headquarters - Public Affairs Office
David Anderson (916) 654-5820
June 21, 2006
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has been recognized for its employees' achievement of logging 34,681 miles, the most by any employer in the Sacramento region, during the Sacramento Region Bike Commute Month/Million Mile May event.
Similar regional events across the state encouraged increased use of bicycles for commuting, errands, and recreation.
"This shows that Caltrans employees are not only interested in keeping in shape, but in finding alternate ways of commuting to work and looking for ways to keep congestion off our highways," said Caltrans Director Will Kempton, who rode his bike from Folsom to Sacramento on May 17.
Event organizers recognized Caltrans employees Kenny Kwong, who logged the most individual miles -- 2,460 - - and Michael Pope, who rode 1,620 miles, all within the month of May. Pope, a senior bridge engineer, commutes from his home in Auburn to Sacramento twice a week, a round-trip of 92 miles.
In a brief ceremony this month at Caltrans Headquarters, Director Kempton accepted the department's awards for sponsorship and total miles logged and acknowledged several Caltrans bicyclists for their achievements.


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Fence Tilt
Hope you have a great evening, friends!!
Uploaded on 8/15/2012 8:40:50 PM
Made with Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera
Copyright for this photo belongs solely to Ellen Hodges. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.


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Never miss a deal, always be up to date -
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OptiMount Suspension System is suited for Masterworks, Masters Premium and Reference Series Drums.
PEARL OptiMount Suspension System OPTA-0910 Features: For toms 9" - 10" deep and 8" - 16" diameter Material: Aluminum Incl. BT-3 tom bracket (for 7/8" tubes)
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Every month we are giving away a shopping voucher among all submitted reviewers worth 500 EURO!
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NORMAL — Illinois State University awarded 2,245 undergraduate students the honor of being on the dean's list for scholarship in their chosen fields of study during the spring 2013 spring semester.
Criteria for earning dean's list status include grade point averages, which place the student among the top 10 percent of students majoring within an academic college at Illinois State.
Area students include:
Bradford — Carlie Grunloh.
Ohio — Kaylene Becker.
Princeton — Danika Churchill-Gilstrap, Brooke Davis, David Drake, Deanna Fultz, Austin Glinski and Zita Henneberry.
Spring Valley — Andria Burris and Amanda Sangston.


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Mizuno Breath Thermo BeanieItem #MIU100
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MIZUNO® BREATH THERMO® BEANIE :: The Mizuno® Breath Thermo® Beanie head Pip changes body moisture to heat overall warth. With superior moisture absorption and anti-bacterial and deodorizing functions.
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WHEATON – For 15 years, Wheaton residents have enjoyed a little slice of Paris – savory snacks, handmade jewelry and more laid out on tables shadowed by canopies, a signature of markets in France – without having to travel farther than Main Street and Liberty Drive.
"It is one of the largest and most popular French Markets in Illinois," said Leslie Cahill, general manager of Bensidoun French Markets in the Chicago area. "It's a gem and a treasure for Wheaton"
About 85 vendors are participating in this year's Wheaton French Market, including several based in the city.
Wheaton businesses that will be appearing every week at the market include Pad Thai Etc Restaurant, Suzette's Creperie, The Bleu Olive, Pop-A-Harrys Gourmet Popcorn and Second Chance Coffee Company. Several others are part-time vendors.
The market runs from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. every Saturday. Its start date was April 20, and it will continue through Dec. 21.
Residents will be able to find everything from sweet and savory dishes to clothes and jewelry to hand puppets and garden art at this year's French Market, Cahill said. The Wheaton market is one of several in the Chicago area run by Bensidoun, a French company with markets in New York, Connecticut and Paris as well.
Before Suzette's Creperie moved to Front Street about 13 years ago, becoming a staple brick-and-mortar business in downtown Wheaton, residents could purchase its crepes on spring and summer weekends when the French Market rolled into town. Although Suzette's no longer sells crepes at the market, the creperie still participates, offering savory sandwiches and mini pizzas to market guests.
Owner Donna Hesik said the French Market is a great place for entrepreneurs to test their products to see what customers like, building up a loyal clientele in the process.
"I'm a big supporter of the market," Hesik said. "It's a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to get their feet wet."
And Hesik isn't the only Wheaton entrepreneur to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the French Market.
Kacie Romberg, Wheaton resident and founder of Bumble.Bee, sells handmade girls' clothing and accessories at the French Market every third Saturday through September.
This is Romberg's first year at the Wheaton market, although she started Bumble.Bee in 2009 when she was in college. The children's clothing company is based out of Romberg's Wheaton home, and up until this year, she had focused solely on online sales and visits to craft shows.
Although her goal is to one day set up a permanent location for her store, Romberg said that dream is still another five or so years away from becoming reality. For now, she wants to build up her online presence, and if Hesik's following of loyal clientele is any indication, Romberg should be able to reach many potential fans via the French Market.
Linda Wagner, owner of Art Girl Pottery, started her custom pottery business after teaching a pottery class at the Wheaton Park District for several years. She decided to take a leap of faith and set up a studio in the basement of her Wheaton home.
Although Wagner has sold her items through other area stores and hopes to continue to do so in the near future, she also sells products online, and she's been a part of the Wheaton French Market for seven years. She hopes to expand her online business and eventually her home studio as well.
This year, Wagner said she's scheduled to participate in the market almost every other week through September.
In addition to various pottery pieces, she also makes customized pendants – some designed for specific causes, such as breast cancer awareness, which have been used in fundraising efforts.
Overall, Wagner said the French Market has played a large role in helping her business become what it is today.
"The French Market is what's made my business grow," Wagner said. "I don't think without the market, I would have had the exposure."
Many other Wheaton residents are fans of the market as well. Building a permanent French Market structure is part of the discussion surrounding the development of a strategic plan for downtown Wheaton. At the most recent open house, held by planning consultant Design Workshop, attendees chose the permanent structure as one of their top recommendations for the downtown area.
Cahill said staff at Bensidoun, who have experience operating indoor markets, are excited for whatever Wheaton decides will be the city's next steps.
In the meantime, Hesik said the outdoor market continues to be a place where Wheaton residents can spend time together, just standing side-by-side, talking. French Markets are meant to serve as a way for the community in an area to gather, she said.
"Wheaton has captured that," said Hesik.


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Browsing by Author "Hore, Timothy"
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The evolution of imprinting: chromosomal mapping of orthologues of mammalian imprinted domains in monotreme and marsupial mammals Edwards, Carol Ann; Rens, Willem; Clark, Oliver; Mungall, Andrew J; Hore, Timothy; Marshall, Graves Jennifer A; Dunham, IanFerguson-Smith, Anne CarlaFerguson-Smith, Malcolm et al. (2007-09-06)Abstract Background The evolution of genomic imprinting, the parental-origin specific expression of genes, is the subject of much debate. There are several theories to account for how the mechanism evolved including the ...


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Betina Dimaranan joined the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at IFPRI as a Research Fellow in July 2007. She is a member of the Globalization and Markets team and currently conducts research on global trade modeling, multilateral and regional trade agreements, and on the impacts of biofuels policies on developing countries. Her previous research include projections on Asia-Pacific food and agricultural markets, corn and livestock markets in the Philippines, reform of OECD domestic agricultural support, WTO accession of China and Vietnam, and rapid growth of China and India. Before joining IFPRI, Betina was a Research Economist and the Database Administrator at the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) in Purdue University. She has also worked at the International Rice Research Institute and as a consultant with the World Bank.
Betina received a B.S. in Agribusiness from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University.
Featured Publications


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Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It's free!
Unreal Tournament 2004 Halo Mod
Posted by Andru Edwards - Categories: First Person Shooters, Mods/Hacks, PC,
You gotta love it when someone is creative and dedicated enough to bring together two things which they love. The team over at Project Torlan have been hard at work bringing the worlds of Halo and Unreal Tournament 2004 together through the development of a Halo mod for UT. Simply put, "Project Torlan is a full-scale Total Conversion mod aimed at porting HaloPC into the Unreal Tournament 2004 engine. This port will be known as HaloUT".
Read More | Project Torlan
GoProxing Anonymous Proxy Browser
Posted by Andru Edwards - Categories: Internet,
These days privacy is king, especially when it comes to the Internet. Simply put, we don't like bring tracked. This is why sites like goproxing.com put a smile on our faces. Basically, it is a site that displays websites you wish to visit within its own interface. It may not look pretty, but when browsing through GoProxing's free site, you are hidden from prying eyes as you surf through anonymous proxy servers. No downloads needed, just visit and type in the web address you wish to visit. There are a few tweaks you can make as well, such as deciding to show/hide images, accept/decline cookies, as well as a few others.
Read More | GoProxing.com
Olympus CAMEDIA X-600 5 MP Camera
Posted by Andru Edwards - Categories: Cameras,
Olympus has announced a new digital still camera for the Japanese market, set to hit retail in May. The Olympus CAMEDIA X-600 seems to be your basic digicam with a 3x optical zoom along with a 4x digital zoom. As far as size goes, the camera is a mere 18.3mm in thick with a 2-inch LCD screen. There is 14 MB of onboard memory, which is really virtually nothing these days. Luckily, it also supports XD cards up to 1 GB.
Read More | Press Release (Google Translated) via Camborg
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Sea Anemone Alarm Clock
Posted by Andru Edwards - Categories: Misc. Tech,
Another strange twist on the everyday alarm clock has emerged. This time it comes in the form of a rumbling sea anemone shaped device. Similar to the Clocky which rolls away when it goes off, Aaron Tang's Sea Anemone clock does the same. The difference here is that the Sea Anemone clock rumbles much like that of a child's toy. Due to its shape, it moves in random directions which means you must chase it down to turn it off. Once you find it, the device continues to rumble until you find the hidden button to turn it off.
Read More | Aaron Tang Sea Anemone Clock via Gizmodo
Mythic Entertainment's Response to StationExchange
Posted by Jesse Easley Categories: Internet, Role Playing Games,
Sony's recent announcement of their new MMORPG Auction site seems to have upset another MMORPG maker, Mythic Entertainment. Mythic Entertainment is the creator of Dark Age of Camelot MMORPG. Mythic's CEO Mark Jacobs had this to say about the decision, "I'm disappointed with the decision from a leader in the MMO industry to go down a path which in the past, has been an anathema to them and remains so to just about every other MMORPG company in the industry. I think that not only supporting the sale of in-game characters, items and currency, but also taking a 'cut' of those sales, is not only a mistake but one of the worst decisions in the history of the MMORPG industry." Jacobs also goes into discussion about how if you were to buy an item on StationExchange and Sony had to delete that item from the game, users would be pretty upset.
Read More | GameDaily
Station Exchange Everquest II Online Auctions
Posted by Jesse Easley Categories: Internet, PC, Role Playing Games,
Sony has announced a new site for Everquest II fans/players. Station Exchange is now the official online auction site for Everquest. The benefit for users using this service is that when an item or character/account is in an auction it is removed from the game until the item is sold. So no more worries about bidding on your High-Level Elvan Mage with the possibility of losing it once you win the auction. This is a great thing for EverQuest II players the world over.
Read More | Station Exchange
Click to continue reading Station Exchange Everquest II Online Auctions
Gear Live Giveaway: iRiver H320 via HandheldsFree.com
Posted by Andru Edwards - Categories: Announcements, Portable Audio / Video,
Alright guys, time for another Gear Live Giveaway. This time we have an iRiver H320 digital audio player for one of you. If you want it, simply tell us what - if anything - you would like to see on our new gaming site, Playfeed. If you have an idea about some features you would like to see on the site, let us know and you will be eligible to win the H320. A big thank you to Handheldsfree.com for sponsoring this giveaway. You can score a PalmOne Tungsten T5 from their site, which you can visit here. We are gonna give you two weeks for this one, but only if you are a United States resident. If not, no contest for you.
WrestleMania 21 Initial Impressions
Posted by Andru Edwards - Categories: Sports, Xbox,
So we got our hands on a copy of WrestleMania 21 for the Xbox yesterday. I must say, Studio Gigante did seem to get most of the major things right, but they skimped out on a lot of the minor details that make a great wrestling game. I have a few pros and cons on WrestleMania 21 after the jump.
Click to continue reading WrestleMania 21 Initial Impressions
AMD Tells Gamers Not To Go Dual-Core
Posted by Jesse Easley Categories: PC / Laptop,
For all the gamers who were excited about the Dual-Core Athlon, you may want to hold off on purchasing one. AMD has released a statement saying, "Gamers, AMD's upcoming dual-core desktop processor, the Athlon 64 X2, is not for you. What you want is the single-core Athlon 64 FX." The reasoning behind this is mainly that games have to be programmed specifically to work with dual-core processors. This is much like what happened when Hyper-Threading was introduced by Intel. At this time AMD's FX-55 Chip has a 200 MHz gain over the top of the line X2. Until games start being programmed to take advantage of the Dual-Core chips, this is a better way to go.
Read More | The Register
Nopir.B Virus Deletes Your MP3 Files
Posted by Jesse Easley Categories: Internet, PC / Laptop,
For everyone who uses P2P to download files be on the lookout. According to antivirus company Sophos, a hacker has created a virus that will wipe your music collection clean if you happen to catch it. The virus, named Nopir.B, is designed to look like a DVD cracking program to bypass disc copyright protection. When the program is launches, it searches your hard drive for MP3 files along with select programs and removes them from your PC.
Read More | Sophos
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ZZ Top's New Album Held Up
It's been nine years since ZZ Top's last album, 'Mescalero.' However, the Texas blues-rock group recently recorded an album with Rick Rubin, although, according to guitarist Billy Gibbons, nobody has any idea when it is coming out.
"I guess the irony of the whole picture is the band is wondering, 'Where is this thing? When do we hear it?' Rubin told Noise 11. "But Rick's funny like that. We've been friends for, gosh, as long as I can remember – triple decades. And this is the first time that we've broken the mold as business pals.
Hidden behind his trademark probably-not-so-cheap sunglasses, it was hard to tell if Gibbons was frustrated or simply bemused by the situation. Still, he has faith that his longtime pal will put it out when the time is right.
"He's got a somewhat unorthodox way of doing just about everything he does, including making records," Gibbons continued. "But make no mistake, he's got a sense of intuition that can't be beat."
In the meantime, Gibbons has kept busy by developing his own brand of barbecue sauce and acting on the Fox drama 'Bones.' Gibbons discussed both projects in the video below. ZZ Top will begin a month-long tour of America in late May.
Billy Gibbons Discusses ZZ Top's New Album


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All right, let's just say it. Radio is really bad at technology.
Technology today is helping to broaden the definition of brands and transform them into experiences. In fact, the future of brands is as experiences across media and platforms.
But it begins with recognizing that your brand is more than your station and more than your stream – it's the center of an experience that has less to do with the brand itself than the way it intersects with the lives of its consumers.
Because while radio may be bad at technology, radio can be superb at humanity.


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This Week in Orange County March 15 2013Mar 15th, 2013 | By HV Insider | Category: Lifestyle
Kudos to the Mid-Hudson Parade committee for coordinating the 37th annual St. Patrick's Day parade. Beautiful spring weather brought out record crowds for this annual tradition hosted in Goshen. It was great to see so many friends and smiling faces of all ages as I walked along the parade route.
As a nation and a county, we have a proud Irish-American heritage. The strength, spirit, and fortitude of our Irish descendants helped build this country. For many centuries, the Irish have sacrificed all that they held dear in their homeland to build a new life in America. In the process, they helped lay the foundation of our nation, brought with them values and traditions that have added to our American culture, and contributed immeasurably to the life we enjoy today.
March also recognizes Women's History Month. New York women have long led the fight for equality. In fact, the women's rights movement got its start in New York in the summer of 1848. Over tea at the home of activist Jane Hunt in Waterloo, NY, Jane and her guests, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, discussed the inequalities women were forced to accept. These included no right to vote or own property, as well as few social and educational outlets. Not willing to accept this, the women decided it was time for a change.
Less than a week later, in nearby Seneca Falls, these same women, who became known as suffragists, launched the women's rights movement and brought it to national attention demanding equal rights for women. It was not until 1920 and the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and the language "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged … on account of sex" that the goal of the suffrage movement was accomplished.
On a related note, the first female medical doctor in the U.S. earned her degree in New York. English-born Elizabeth Blackwell moved to New York when she was just a young girl. She overcame adversity and prejudice in her quest for a medical education, but eventually was accepted to and graduated from Geneva Medical College in upstate New York.
My wife worked for 30 years as a school guidance counselor and I'm father to two successful, professional daughters, one who is also a working mom. So, you can bet that I'm a firm believer in women's rights. That being said, I recognize that inequality still exists and there is still progress to be made in the area of women's rights. I'm proud to have many outstanding and experienced female professionals holding top spots in my administration. These include: Dr. Jean Hudson, Commissioner of Health, Darcie Miller, Commissioner of Mental Health, Ann Marie Maglione, Director of Aging, Rachel Wilson, Youth Bureau Director, Historian Cornelia Bush, Susan Hawvermale, Director of Tourism, Julie Richmond, Director of Grants, Ruth Luis, Director of Compliance, and many other highly qualified professional women managers and staff members on Team Orange working to serve the needs of Orange County residents.
Last, but not least, it was my privilege to issue a proclamation marking March as Red Cross Month in Orange County in recognition of National Red Cross Month. The American Red Cross fulfills a vital role in our community, prevents and alleviates suffering in the face of hardship and disaster, and reflects our nation's spirit of volunteerism. Our Emergency Operations team has worked very closely with our local Red Cross representatives in the wake of storms Irene, Lee, and Sandy. We appreciate all that they do for our community.
Until next week, wishing you health and happiness,
Edward A. Diana
County Executive


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JOLIET — Wherever he goes, Ron Ferrari always has his pencils and carving tools.
During free moments — as when he is waiting at the doctor's office — he busies himself whittling faces into the pencil shafts.
In his breast pocket, he carries finished products to show to anyone who might be interested.
The faces on the pencils are remarkably detailed, with smiling eyes and strong noses and long, fine beards.
If you ask the Coal City resident how he renders the faces in such precise detail, he might smile and say: "Very carefully."
Ferrari is part of a group called the Will County Wood Chiselers. Most every Wednesday, you can find them at the Inwood Recreation Center, working independently on their various projects, offering each other advice and trading friendly jabs.
There, you might see Shorewood resident Dick Suchomel working on his chip carvings of leprechauns, or New Lenox resident Joe Calderone bringing life to Mr. and Mrs. A-Bear-ica — two bears clad in the colors of the flag in honor of the Fourth of July.
Or, maybe, Ferrari working on his pencils.
"I like to work with my hands," Ferrari says. "There's lots of satisfaction in knowing you created something."
Ferrari started carving 15 years ago, in part as a response to questions as to what he'd do once he retired.
"I just said I want to sit in a chair, smoke a cigar and carve."
And that's what he did.
He started checking instructional videos out of the library and collecting wood carving magazines. Then, after four years of carving independently, he met members of the Chiselers and joined up.
For Ferrari, the most rewarding things about the group are the comaraderie and the interest of on-lookers.
"It's a great feeling that you do something you know people enjoy," Ferrari says.
The carvings occasionally catch the interest of kids and their parents. He remembers a time when he made small owls for two boys and flowers for two girls.
"Their eyes just lit up," he says. "The rewards with this stuff is high."
One of those rewards for Joe Calderone, who members of the Chiselers describe as the most experienced wood carver in the group, is being part of a tight-knit community.
"It's a great hobby," he says. "I know carvers all over the country."
He's met them at shows, the carving classes he's taught since the early 1980s, and at two museums he had a hand in establishing.
"It's a comparatively cheap hobby," says Calderone. "People are interested in going back to basics."
Calderone got into wood carving as a student at Chicago Vocational High School, via his shop teacher.
"Mr. Just had a wood carving in the window," he recalls. It was of dogs under a streetlight.
"I just marveled at it," he says.
Calderone began doing his own carvings soon after, but fell away from the hobby when he began working and attending night school.
He got back into it when one of his friends — after the two took their wives out for their birthdays one night — showed Calderone one of the carvings he'd begun.
"I've been in it hook, line and sinker ever since," Calderone says.
Now, he says, he finds fulfillment in creating, and finds that carving helps with his Parkinson's disease.
"When I start carving," Calderone says, "the shaking stops."
Calderone hosts weekly lessons in his basement in New Lenox, and offers advice to group members who are working on various projects based on their skill level.
Dick Suchomel, of Shorewood, has been carving wood for 20 years and says that he will sometimes try to work a little on a project before breakfast, only to find that when he lifts his gaze from the wood that he's carved well into the afternoon.
"Time just goes by," he says.
For Suchomel, being in the group provides opportunities to learn.
"You learn something from everybody," Suchomel says. "I'm constantly learning and trying to get better."
Look at their intricate carvings — done on the hard insides of golf balls and on blocks of light tan wood — and you might wonder what more these carvers have to learn about their craft.
Look at the nuance of the faces — the expression in the eyes, the fine-flowing hair — and you might sense something unteachable here, an innate skill members of the group all have that practice just hones.
But each member of the Will County Wood Chiselers will assure you that you're as capable as they are, that turning a block of wood into an animal is just a matter of following directions, that the hardest thing about carving is sharpening your knives.
"Can you peel a potato? Can you draw a snowman to scale?" asks Joe Calderone.
"Then you can carve."


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'Russian Roulette' victim dies, man charged with manslaughter | News
Tampa, FL-- Donnie McLendon, the gunshot victim that his friends said was wounded playing Russian Roulette last week, died Wednesday evening at Tampa General Hospital, police say.
A subsequent autopsy reportedly called David McKee and Thomas Rady's explanation of events into question. McKee and Rady were the other two people present at the time of the shooting, and they allegedly said McLendon wounded himself while taking a turn during a game of Russian Roulette.
Authorities say further investigation determined that the three were not playing Russian Roulette, but in fact McLendon was accidentally wounded by Thomas Wade Rady, who was holding the gun at the time it discharged.
All three were reportedly drinking and smoking marijuana prior to the accident.
As a result, Rady, 28, was arrested and charged with manslaughter.
He turned himself in at the Pinellas County Jail at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday evening.


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Within hours of his ouster from the International Tennis Hall of Fame, doubles great Bob Hewitt was permanently removed in his homeland from the South African Sports and Arts Hall of Fame. The national prosecutor in South Africa is investigating Hewitt, 72, over allegations he sexually abused numerous underage girls he coached from the 1970s to 1990s. In the United States, Hewitt is accused of sexually abusing Heather Crowe Conner, then a 15-year-old student at Masconomet Regional High School, in 1976 after he played a season for the Boston Lobsters.
Czechs, Spain tied in Davis Cup final
Tomas Berdych beat Nicolas Almagro, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, to give the Czech Republic a 1-1 tie with Spain after the opening singles matches Friday in the Davis Cup final in Prague. Earlier, Spain's David Ferrer topped Radek Stepanek, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Spain, playing without injured star Rafael Nadal, is bidding to win its fourth title in five years.
Rockets' White focuses on his health
Rockets rookie forward Royce White said on Twitter that properly treating his mental-health condition is more important than his NBA career. White, the 16th overall pick in the draft, has been absent from Houston's practices for almost a week and called the team ''inconsistent" for how it was helping him deal with his anxiety issues and obsessive compulsive disorder. According to an ESPN report, White will meet with the Rockets on Monday to discuss his future. White posted on Twitter: ''I'm not PLANNING to quit, but if its between my HEALTH and BASKETBALL, health takes precedence.'' . . . Hornets general manager Dell Demps agreed to a multiyear contract extension.
College basketball
UCLA freshman Muhammad is eligible
The NCAA ruled UCLA freshman guard Shabazz Muhammad eligible to play, and the star freshman guard is set to make his Bruins debut Monday night. The NCAA said UCLA's sanctions against Muhammad were sufficient after the school required him to sit out three games and repay $1,600 in impermissible benefits. The NCAA and UCLA found that Muhammad accepted travel and lodging during three unofficial visits to Duke and North Carolina . . . Saint Louis men's coach Rick Majerus, will not return to the team because of a serious heart condition. Majerus has been undergoing evaluation and treatment in California for ongoing heart trouble. Jim Crews, added to Majerus's staff last season, is the interim coach.
O'Connor headlines TD Garden bouts
Two-time national amateur boxing champion Danny O'Connor of Framingham will take on Derek Silveira of Salem in a 10-round welterweight bout in the headliner of TD Garden's Night at the Fights on Dec. 14. The card, which will also feature five amateur bouts, begins at 7 p.m. . . . Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon said he was fueled by a seven-month grudge when he intentionally wrecked Clint Bowyer last Sunday, but said he regretted the incident. "I allowed my anger and my emotions to put me in a position to make a bad choice,'' Gordon said. ''I felt like Clint needed to be dealt with, but that wasn't the right way to go about it, certainly not the right time.'' . . . Defending champion and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy (5 over) missed the cut at the Hong Kong Open. Michael Campbell has a one-shot lead after a 64 got him to 9 under . . . Ai Miyazato shot an 8-under-par 64 for a one-shot lead in the second round of the LPGA Titleholders in Naples, Fla. . . . Henrik Stenson opened a four-shot lead at the South African Open in Johannesburg with a second-round 65 before play was suspended because of an electrical storm with much of the field yet to finish.


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|Episode Description
|Saturday, Jan 26, 2013 - 10:00 AM
"Family Favorites"
Bridget reveals how to make the ultimate Swiss Steak. Then, Jack challenges Chris to a tasting of tomato paste. Next, Adam reveals his top picks for immersion blenders. D
Mountain Time
|More on IDAHO (MT)
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My understanding that much of Gates' donations have been spent on organizations trying to reform public education along "market-based" lines -- i.e., public schools run by private companies, which supposedly makes them more accountable. Maybe he's discovering this isn't the panacea that the reformers have sold?
It seems like the vast majority of people think that education and job training are the same thing or at least should be the same thing. My opinion has been that this is actually the root of the problem. If this actually is true then making schools "accountable" actually makes the problem worse.
I know talking with those older than me that companies didn't used to expect people to know everything before they could be hired. Now companies don't want to hire except when the person is perfect. It's not only education that has changed.
Now companies don't want to hire except when the person is perfect.
That's a symptom of oversupply of labor, not a structural change. With unemployment so high, if I'm looking to hire someone, why would I hire someone who needs training if I there are 10 people in a line with high experience who are competing for the same job? When demand outstrips supply, you'll see this trend reverse, as it did during the dot-com boom of the 90s, where any fool was being hired as a "web developer".
This occurred before the crash and resulting unemployment. It is more a problem of over-education more than anything else. As a lawyer, I had bosses before the crash who were complaining about how much we young lawyers whined. But they went to law school at a time when even a pretty bad law school got you a good jobâ"simply put, they couldn't get hired today with their credentials. They also paid a fifth of the tuition we did, even adjusted for inflation, so they didn't have the pressure we have to pay
Throwing money at the wrong thing will never fix a problem.
You can spend all the money you want on your plumbing, if you gaskets are salvaged from a junk yard, and can't make solid seals, you are going to have leaks.
The problem with the modern education system is parental apathy. Observe the better school districts, you'll have more parents that care, but not necessarily better teachers or equipment (though usually at least better equipment). Now, look within a school district, and compare students who do well, vs. those who do poorly (excluding those with learning disabilities), the better students, in general will have parents who have more concern with their kids education, and play a more active role.
Parental education is a better place to start with reform. Getting them to care about their kids future, and teaching them that their kids have more than just McDonalds and WalMart in their employment future is what is needed.
True, but it can be a critical role.
Note: I know this isn't all cases, but it at least shows an important one
I went between two school districts when I was younger. The first had EXCELLENT teachers, but parents who didn't care. It ended up being a very low rating school district. Most of the parents simply thought of the place as a free daycare, most actually discouraged their kids from learning. Those who wanted to learn, however, got pushed to think, encouraged to be creative, helped when they needed it,
The second district had parents who cared. They wanted their kids to be successful like they were. The teachers however, were there for a 8 to 4 job, and didn't give a damn if the students learned or not.
Where is the rest of the story/comparison with the first district?
Did the kids in the second district get better education/better grades?
Or did they win the basketball game with the help of a crazy inventor/a teenage werewolf?
You can't just leave us hanging there.
I think, you can deduce from the nature of the story, that the second had much better standardized test scores and college acceptance.
But hey, if you needed it spelled out, that deduction is correct.
I know this isn't true for large cities with huge school districts, but in small towns at least if the parents care good teachers are hired, schools get funded, and a lot of other factors get addressed besides. Lets face it, a lot of school funding comes from local sources. If parents are involved and concerned you have an army of people willing to go door to door to drum up support for a
The problem with the modern education system is parental apathy.
If only it were that simple.
Let's say you have a school district which is incredibly poor, but has a highly motivated but not unusually smart set of parents (Such districts aren't hard to find - they exist in most US cities and more isolated rural areas). Because they are poor, they are facing these problems:
* outdated textbooks
* a facility that gives their kids respiratory problems
* teachers without a strong background in either teaching or their subject matter (because smart and capable teachers prefer di
many people are taught that Columbus proved the world was round even though everyone thought it was flat (invented by Washington Irving), George Washington cut down his dad's cherry tree (also invented by Washington Irving), and that Paul Revere said "The British are coming!" (invented by Henry Longfellow).
Find me a school that teaches that, please. Ive never heard a school teach that throughout my educational years.
Let's say you have a school district which is incredibly poor, but has a highly motivated but not unusually smart set of parents (Such districts aren't hard to find - they exist in most US cities and more isolated rural areas).
You mean like New York and DC, who have the twin distinctions of being the MOST funded per pupil, and also the least performant, in the country?
To give our highly motivated parents the benefit of the doubt, we'll assume they've:
* Ensured that their kids can read, count, and possibly add or subtract 1-digit numbers before entering first grade.
That puts them at about a second to third grade level in the public schools I went to, and FCPS (fairfax county) is one of the better school districts in the country. Id say "motivated parents putting kids 2 years ahead of peers" is a pretty good example
I wouldn't hold outdated text books up as an example. I doubt there have been many changes in basic mathematics up to calculus in the last 300 or so years, same with thing with: classic literature, basic science, history, microeconomics, geography (I know there have been a few map changes but excluding former soviet states and the split of Sudan in Africa nothing that I studied in grades k-12 has changed). I will give you text books having incorrect info and teachers telling kids wrong things.
those who do poorly (excluding those with learning disabilities)
I had two relatives in the biz, one got out, the other is trying to escape before the system completely implodes. Which, frankly, is probably not too much longer. There's already a lost generation where virtually all teachers between 22 and 40-something have been laid off per union seniority rules, and all the boomers are starting to retire, so rather suddenly the average age, salary, and competence level of school teachers is about to collapse once the last boomer leaves the building and they hire all fr
You just can't say that though. It's so Un-PC of a thing to say. No politician would never in a million-bajillion years point the finger toward their voters as the source of the problem. Oh no, it could never be a cultural issue. But we sure could improve our teen daycare system if we only had more money. Not to worry parents, we have the problem solved. Just vote for us, that's all you need to do. Sorry to trouble you for your precious time.
You don't need more books, you need better teachers.
How you attract good teachers to schools full of self-entitled bratz and/or gang-bangers is another matter. It has to be one of the most unrewarding jobs ever. Some things can't be paid for with money.
beginning in preschool "Education" has a small number of goals
1 teach a kids that they can learn (and should do so)
2 teach them how to get knowledge
3 teach them how to "fill in the edges of the map" (if "there be dragons" beyond this point find out what kind and how many are there)
everything else is just drum beating (and providing resources)
4 teach them word and excel because every corporation uses it.
It is indeed time to ditch the whole idea of schools. It is parents who should be educating their children, not some poorly trained teacher in charge of 50 kids. All parents do instead is obssess over not having time to do it because they work all day, and send kids to school as if it were a daycare center. How about taking some personal responsibility for your kids upbringing? Your kids want to spend time with you (and if they don't it's because you kept pushing them into institutions) because they love yo
What? Throwing money at a problem does not automagically fix things? The deuce you say!
If I learned anything from my teacher wife*, it's that there are dozens of ways that children (and adults) learn, and you have to tailor the learning experience for each of them.
Some children may do very well with things like the Khan Academy. Others will not.
Anyone who tries to shoehorn all children into the same learning solution is likely to leave a large percentage of them behind.
* and my own experience in contrast to my brother, and my own two childrens' very different learning experiences in public schools.
"No child left behind" just drags everybody down to the lowest common denominator.
One of the problems with the USA is that everybody is constantly being told they're amazing. Sometimes a kid needs to be told "you're never going to be a professional singer/dancer/whatever, try something else
Thanks for the soundbite. However, no one is talking about that misguided attempt to normalize test scores across the nation. They're a useless metric that proves nothing.
What is being discussed is solid: Everyone learns differently, and these differences need to be recognized and allowed for as much as possible. Telling someone they'll never be something is a stupid plan and will never pan out in the long run. (Although some kids will overperform just to prove you wrong - this approach could work for
Sometimes a kid needs to be told "you're never going to be a professional singer/dancer/whatever, try something else
Who is qualified to make that judgement? I say stop being a dick and let the children define their own lives.
I think you'll find that people excel in fields that they like, and fail in those that they don't. One problem I see with today's educational system is the idea that we should educate people in fields that have the greatest chance for employment instead of what is in the best interest of the child. This lead to the decline of the "fundamentals" (ie Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic) in exchange for "technologies" (ie computer science, trade skills).
If we actually taught the fundamental subjects in a way that didn't require it being reviewed at almost every grade level, we could actually have an educational system worth bragging about. Not to mention, we would have more time to really teach the advance topics instead of pretending.
You are sort of right, and sort of wrong. You're right that not all kids learn the same way, and much more importantly at the same rate.
However, there are ways to teach kids that can work for most (as in 90%* of them). Those remaining 10% won't learn, either because they are too stupid or they don't want to... but I repeat myself. Trouble is, we teach the 90% as if they were the 10%, since "we can't leave any child behind!". And of course, you can't really discipline them either, since the parents won't le
If I learned anything from my teacher wife*, it's that there are dozens of ways that children (and adults) learn, and you have to tailor the learning experience for each of them.
Some children may do very well with things like the Khan Academy. Others will not.
Anyone who tries to shoehorn all children into the same learning solution is likely to leave a large percentage of them behind.
I don't understand. The whole idea about Khan Academy is to tailor the learning experience to each student's need, as opposed to shoehorning all students into one set format/pace/etc, and no one gets "left behind".. only moves at a slower pace, until they get over whatever obstacle they have and can speed along afterward. And no one is held back either, according to the same theory. I can see you saying what you did about some traditional lecture format, but... do you know what Khan Academy is all about?
The problem with our education system is simple; it's run by politicians. Education should not be run by people who a) don't have a solid grasp of the material they are mandating and b) are more interested in reelection.
The only way we'll get meaningful reform is by pushing control ( ie: money ) down to the county level and letting them figure it out.
The problem with our education system is simple; it's run by politicians. Education should not be run by people who a) don't have a solid grasp of the material they are mandating and b) are more interested in reelection.
and c) have a vested interest in the populace being uneducated therefore easier to manipulate. A fox guarding the henhouse situation.
I did a Master of Arts in Teaching in the early 90's. What I think I learned from my History of Eduction Reforms was this: 1) kids will learn given half a chance, 2) most (if not all) education reforms have had AT BEST marginal impacts, 3) so you can do something good or screw up and it doesn't matter all that much. Education and the drive to become educated starts at home.
One major problem with education is that is is big - really really big, like healthcare and military spending. $5B over 10 years is something like 5 cents per student per day.
So, while an impressive feat for a single man to accomplish, approaching every student in the U.S. every morning for 10 years and saying "hey kid, here's a nickel, try to do a better job in school today," is apparently about as effective as you would imagine it to be.
And, the real problem, while Bill was giving kids a nickel, the loca
Two big problems with Deep Pocket donations:
1) No audit trail for where/how the donation was spent
2) No evidence the donation was ever *actually* made
I apologize if this sounds cynical, but I have very, very little faith in any corporation/monopoly in the US right now. It's far too easy for companies to game tax breaks with large wads of cash. Sure, maybe you donated 5 billion to a school, but in return did you get a 8 billion tax credit from taxpaye
... but in return did you get a 8 billion tax credit from taxpayers?
This is completely fucking irrelevant and a separate point entirely if you want to say the U.S. tax codes are broken.
You are funny.
"You'd probably do better to judge a school based on how happy the students and parents are."
When I was in High School a million years ago I asked a teacher this question.
"Why do the teachers get better food and better parking spaces at the high school?"
I was told it was because they worked at the school.
So I said, "Well at the mall and most stores the people that work their part far away and give the best parking to the customers, since it is the teachers job to teach us the students that mak
I don't buy the argument that teachers unions cause all the problems since this problem is so complex and there as so many factors, but one my earliest observations I had of the school system as a child was that everything was being run for the good of the administrators first and the teacher's second. For instance the school year kept starting earlier in buildings that were not built to be usable during summer heat. Kids were always in classrooms that would bake while teachers could go to a cooled lounge
I get suspicious when people like Gates "leverage private money in a way that redirects how public education dollars are spent." Like those who believe schools should operate how they want schools to operate instead of how they should operate. There was a time when someone completes high school they have reasonable education to be an adult, though trade school or college will help. Instead these "big donors" are trying to form school kids into what they want to function at their companies. Though not necessarily a bad thing if done for the right reasons. Yes, corporations need intelligent employees but people should have a right and ability to pursue a career they have a personal interest instead of having to work $9/hr in IT.
Everyone has all kinds of ideas for school reform, but what did schools do before they became so "bad?" What was their methods of teaching? I wonder if some of these old people forgot what methods were used to make them successful. Or did they simply grow up in neighborhoods that had good schools and not experienced growing up in neighborhoods with bad schools. There is a huge difference in Palo Alto, CA school district (where many parents have college degrees) when compared to east San Jose school districts (where many parents are poor working class). For you that say, "tango sierra, they'll just have to work harder!" Be careful because poor uneducated can easily be recruited into gang activity, and that can lead to bigger problems.
My big gripe is they increase spending on prisons, TSA, etc. and decrease spending on schools so it should not be a surprise we'll have more young people going to jails instead of schools.
but I will give you a hint, the same problem that exist with the prison system exists for the school systems. The unions.
Unions love three strikes and your out. They love long prison sentences. Just like they love testing without accountability and "tenure" and seniority.
You can go read up on the horrors on California prison and you can read up on the latest big education scandal, the Atlanta Public School cheating problem.
The APS cheating scandal shows exactly what is wrong with the system. They have evid
They focused resources on teaching the brightest prospects, and didn't force children to stay beyond their learning capacity. Future janitors didn't have to take 3 years of math in High School. Sure there were some problems with discrimination and one of the key requirements for getting an education was your parents being rich/educated, but still...
(one of) The problem(s) with our education system now is that it is aimed at bringing all students up to some minimum standard acceptable level, on the pretens
If certain sources are to be believed, the entire American public school system was the nefarious brainchild of 19th Century "billionaires", conceived as a means of mass-producing humans conditioned to be ideal top-to-bottom factory workers. If that conspiratorial tale is true, then Bill Gates meddling in the school system to achieve goals that benefit the tech industry would just be more of the same, wouldn't it?
Or maybe they just wanted to copy what already worked in other countries.
"Historically, the Lutheran denomination had a strong influence on German culture, including its education. Martin Luther advocated compulsory schooling so that all people would independently be able to read and interpret the Bible. This concept became a model for schools throughout Germany.
During the 18th century, the Kingdom of Prussia was among the first countries in the world to introduce free and generally compulsory primary educa
Perhaps Gates should consider funding a skunkworks educational project for retired Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie, who was working on networked, self-paced computer assisted instruction in 1974 â" 36 years before Bill and Google discovered Khan Academy!"
To paraphrase Heinlein, who was paraphrasing someone else, "when it's time to railroad, people will build railroads" and the corollary "you can't railroad until it's time to railroad."
Networked computer instruction was a great idea back in the 70's, but the infrastructure wasn't really there to support it. Right now it's entirely possible and it's only entrenched notions about education that are holding it back. A couple decades more and in retrospect it will seem both obvious and inevitable.
Schools are ran like a corporation.
Administrators that are worthless getting paid 20X-30X of what the teachers get paid. Sorry, that will not cut it.
Teachers MEDIAN pay range needs to be 20% higher than the MEDIAN pay range in that area to attract good teachers.
Administrators need to have a PAY cut to no more than 8X more than the MEDIAN pay of their school or district.
Finally, expenses need to be realistic, teachers and kids using computers from more than 4 years ago is a waste of resources. IT budgets
He is on the path to becoming the most influential philanthropist in a hundred years.
You do realize that every philanthropist throughout history has been a fraud, don't you? I guess not. Do you really think that a sociopath changes in his old age to become a compassionate human being? Dream on. When you have Billions, spending a few pennies on PR to get people to like you is just another part of the game.
If you want someone who came into his money via talent and hard work, and not putting other companies out of business, just look at Woz. He gave away stock options to co-workers, and h
Or the kids that are the problem. It's the school boards and administration in most cities that is the problem. The administrations is full of failed middle-management idiots, that have transferred their complete lack of skills into D-level politics.
And the school board is usually nothing but lunatics just trying to draw a paycheck, and hoping to somehow jumpstart a political career.
And, of course, there are kickbacks and deals at every level.
Basically, every school district in the country is representative of the absolute WORST aspects of government corruption and incompetence. And it's not the system, it's the people.
VOTE IN YOUR SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS! Throw the idiots out. Run for the board yourself. That's the only way.
should have come in using that money to dismantle the teachers' unions. We are protecting the incompetent and complacent while rewarding the thugs at the top of the food chain. Better yet, maybe he should have used it to make a foundation that provides tuition assistance to move more kids to private schooling.
Parents that show interest in their kids learning, sit and help them with homework, direct them at a young age to appreciate culture and to be engaged in problem solving and a creative pursuit that requires discipline, then I have found the kids may still not be the shar
These have gotten a bit of a bad rap, but I believe the right balance between entertainment and education can still be found. Kids will play video games 24 hours straight if you let them, because they become so absorbed. When they're on a console, the house could catch on fire and they wouldn't notice.
The risk/reward mechanic of modern video games produces a neurochemical response that can be quite addictive.
So if you can insinuate education into that experience such that at the end of completing a missio
The problem with the United States is that people are deluded by the belief that throwing money at a problem will fix it. The thing is that the US already spends way more per student than any other developed nation. Teachers and school administrators are certainly part of the equation, but the true source of the problem are the parents and popular culture. American culture glorifies the celebrity and the athlete. It creates the expectation that a person can get rich overnight and that everyone will be fabulously wealthy. When isn't there some celebrity dipshit on television flaunting their wealth? There's no idolization of the hard working individual, of the person who studies hard in school. American parents care more about having a child who is popular than they are having one who's studious. The mindset that is endlessly perpetuated is that you should do something you love, because it's fun.
Look at Asian kids going through the same exact school system. They consistently excel. Not because they're innately smarter than anyone else. Live in Asia any length of time and you'll be cured of that misconception. Asians excel because from birth their parents are pushing them to work hard and do well in school. As a friend explained to me, your average American parent is happy with a child getting B's in school whereas an Asian parent will tolerate nothing less than straight A's. So from the start a child is learning that good enough is all they need to do to satisfy people.
Every single thing they do is aimed at ensuring their kids not only do well but can get into a good university. This means everything from no computers or televisions in the bedroom to no socializing during the school year. And the parents are always aware of what their kids are doing. Too many American parents are too concerned with giving their kids freedom, with being their buddies.
And this has nothing to do with the academic system in Asia because most of these Asians kids were born in the States and are growing up here. For a while I considered moving back to Asia and for a variety of reasons stayed here. One of those reasons was the school system here versus in Asia. The thing with the American system is that it's problems can be easily countered with parental involvement. In Asia, on the other hand, there is little that can be done to address the problems there. Asian schools still suffer the problem of focusing on rote memorization, parroting the teacher, and a fixation on taking tests. Study schools are still huge there. After school kids go to these cram schools in the evening with the purpose of studying to pass tests more effectively. School there is a lot more oppressive. I suppose the upside to all that is that at least they're still very focused on academics.
And of course, the final piece here is that when Asians choose careers they consistently choose those which will ensure the greatest success. They're much less likely to choose a career that merely feels good. So this means that they get into finance, technology or healthcare. But even those who don't go that route, when they've had such a strong work ethic instilled in them ultimately find another path to success, even if they've started off in construction. Where your average individual will remain stuck working for someone else indefinitely, they'll find a way to grow to the point that they've got their own thriving business, as is the case with a good friend of mine. And the funny thing is that I've known Asians who've been fully Americanized, and they pretty much end up in the same situation as the average American; they've lost the formula for success.
The thing here is that these techniques are especially important for a child growing up in lower to middle-class environments. These are the kids who are less likely to be exposed to successful role models. A kid growing up in an upper-class neighborhood has little to worry about. The success of everyone around them will rub off on them, and if it doesn't, well, they're connected enough that they wi
on both money AND technology, and as a culture we get a little closer to growing up.
a new goal is to leverage private money in a way that redirects how public education dollars are spent
It's good that they're being honest and upfront about trying subvert our education system with lobbyist money, but it's kinda shocking they're so blatant about it.
At least he isn't pushing for a voucher system and killing off public schools.
... is nearly limitless. Honestly.
Here's a guy who is smart. He has a LOT of money because he knew how to use his brain at the right time and right place in history. Now, being older, he wants to do good with his money. Great. Or not so much... because given the cultural assumption that multi-billionaires understand something about the world that the rest of us don't, his quests are followed and worshiped as good steps. But lets look back at his severe missteps in his attempts to reform education:
1) Scholarships: The whole effort start with giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive scholarships. That's really nice, but here's the thing about competitive scholarships-- they almost always go to the kids that are already destined for higher education funding. He was helping the easily helped. Of COURSE this wasn't going to change the state of education in the USA. He was/is just holding the status quo.
2) Building Super Schools: Bill funded/helped to fund tech super schools. As Bill knows from the planned obsolescence model, those schools aren't fiscally sustainable because all the high tech hardware needs upkeep, security, and replacement regularly. That means more cost for the schools. Bad move, Bill.
3) Charter Schools: Bill, despite his great intentions, has fallen into the latest fallacy trap: "Private business survives on lean budgets and thus public service has something to learn." But there's a problem... private/corporate businesses are "lean" in their budgets because their shareholders demand evermore short-term profits at the cost of service and employees. Turning public schools (where the shareholders are effectively the students) into genuine private businesses opens up schools to the profit motive and thus low-investment teachers and cherry-picked students. So what's the plan when stocks take a dive...?
Bill, here's a tip: Go through an MA in education program and get your California Teachers' Credentials. Experience the massive bureaucracy and cost associated with becoming a teacher and ask yourself, "Who in the world is willing to do this to themselves... and how do we make sure more are able to do it?" What do I mean? Well, here's a quick walkthrough of the path to becoming a well-prepared teacher:
***Take your SATs during high school = ~$75
***Apply to undergraduate programs at 4-year universities = ~$60 each
***Get accepted, go through college, graduate with B or better average = $125,000 (UC education)
***Prepare for and take the GRE, CBEST, and CSET (in your planned area of teaching) = $250
***Explore the completely non-standardized MA/PhD world, tons of websites, more phone calls and emails, and find the right MA Education program for you. Apply to many and prepare to move house. ~$80 each. Don't forget to save money for all that travel for interviews you'll have to do!
***Complete your MA and get your credentials over 2-3 years while also teaching for free = ~$50,000
***Congratulations, you're a mostly-prepared teacher with temporary credentials and have only spent $200,000.
***Additional fees: $55 per copy of your credential (you'll need multiple), the cost of fingerprinting in each county you apply as a teacher (non-transferable).
***Start your job search in a state that recently had MAJOR teacher downsizing. Hope for a 75+% appointment but take whatever you can. Prepare to move house.
***Start work making $30,000-$40,000. Don't settle in to your new apartment. There are still more cuts and teacher tenure is under attack. Oh, expect to pay $1,500 out-of-pocket for your class supplies because neither your students nor your school can afford to buy them.
***3 years pass, and you have to complete your credentialing. You take more classes, more tests, get evaluated. You've spent $4,500 on school supplies since starting.
And it goes on.
Bill, if you REALLY want to change education for the better, here are two ways to do so:
1) Affect the poorest and lowest performing children. Fund the fixing of thei
I would suggest the best way to help teachers is to make the wages competitive.
And before everyone jumps all over this on a "TEACHERS GET OVERPAID", stop and do the math:
For a pre-schooler, it's going to cost you around $600 a month for day care. That's about $30 a day to supervise and entertain a child.
A teacher is expected not only to do those two things, but also educate them. And they're doing this for a much larger group (your day care is required to have one staff for every ten kids here; your kid's classroom will be double or triply as large).
Do you think your kid's teacher is making $900 a day? (30 kids x $30/day)?
Gates and Broad and whoever else controls education reform direction have an assumption in common. Namely that poverty doesn't matter. To prove this, they point to KIPP schools where great test scores are achieved. More on that in a minute. I don't know much about what else they accomplish at KIPP schools. I have a vague notion that they excel in performance arts as well, which is great. Anytime a child gets arts experience in school, it's a good thing.
I have a few major problems with this, mostly that students are selected to go to KIPP (self-selection counts) and that all they demonstrate with high test scores is success on tests. It could just be gaps in my knowledge about how much success kids have in KIPP. But the self-selection and ability of KIPP schools to dismiss students both undermine the idea's scalability.
Until we address America's 23%-and-climbing rate of child poverty, the scores posted by poor students are going to continue to drag the average down. I don't mean to be cruel here, but scores by non-poor students are generally fine. In some cases, better than many countries'. Poor kids need some basic needs met that are traditionally not the responsibility of schools. You're familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs [wikipedia.org] I hope. Throwing more money at the administrators or putting in bonus programs for schools (as in NYC) will not accomplish this. There was a guy in Harlem with a charter I think who put in a dental office in the next building over because his students were not getting dental care. That's a start.
School reform efforts that ignore or dismiss concerns about poverty will always fail.
Note that this is still better than the conservative vision of school reform, where the greatest resources are spent on the highest (student) achievers and everyone else gets enough education to serve as their working class.
Our business in life is not to succeed but to continue to fail in high spirits. -- Robert Louis Stevenson


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I have some high loft batting (polyfill), the kind in sheets, and some mattress topper foam. Which would be better to line the walls of my sub box?
I have some high loft batting (polyfill), the kind in sheets, and some mattress topper foam. Which would be better to line the walls of my sub box?
Why would you want to line your sub box?
This quote I pulled up from a Polk forum member Jstas sums it up beautifully:
"However, in a ported or band-pass enclosure, even if the box is built to perfect specs, polyfil can be a great help. It helps cancel the backwave which can lead to port resonances. That makes the port whistle and vibrate which colors to music. It can also slow down the air movement in the cabinet which can reduce port velocity which also hels to stop port noise like whistling. Lower port velocity also reduces turbulence at the mouth of the port. If the velocity is too high and there is too much turbulence, you develop a high pressure area around the mouth of the port. What this does is two things. First off, it can have the same effect as changing the length of your port tube which changes the tuning frequency of your port. The other thing it does is kind of complicated. Since the high pressure air is there and making the tube seem longer, it also moves with the wave of the air coming out of the port. The port doesn't move because it is a solid, not a gas. As that gas oscilates, it will pinch that high pressure area around the mouth of the port. Just like if you were to squeeze teh mouth of a deflating balloon. This causes a low frequency chattering that sounds like distortion. The biggest problem is that the low frequency chattering creates it's own backwave the travels back down the port to mess around in the cabinet. Not good and it can cause uneven pressure behind the driver cone which can lead to cone break up and more distortion.
However, because of the dampening ability of the polyfil, it will smooth out the response of the driver in a ported cabinet. If the box is too small, it will also help the box behave like a larger box. It also smooths out the response in a sealed box. A driver that is in a box that is too small will have a very peaky frequency response. The dampening effect of the polyfill slows down the air flow so that the pressure waves slow down too and the air pocket behind the driver doesn't pressurize as quickly. It allows the driver to move further in its moved before the pressure wave inside the cabinet tries to push the driver cone back out. That pressure wave prematurly stopping the movement of the cone and pushing it in the opposit direction is what truncates the frequency response."
its not needed
well if you want sq go with a sealed box and put all the poly you want in it. but if you want loud just build a nice solid ported box with a rounded port edge.
a ported box is about air movement
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lining with polyfill wont help port noise or anything really
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"Because December is such a big month for jewelry sales, it returns to regular prices in January," says Daniel Butler, vice president of retail operations for the National Retail Federation. T hat's particularly true of diamonds and fine watches, he says.
Expect better deals: in December. While not all fine jewelry goes on sale at the holidays, you can find deals of 30 percent to 50 percent off, Butler says.
Or save 20 percent to 30 percent by shopping in August or September, says Hillary Mendelsohn, author of "thepurplebook" online shopping series and founder of ThePurpleBook.com.
What is on sale in January: costume jewelry.
"The new spring stuff is coming out, and fall stuff will be on clearance," Butler says. You save anywhere from 50 percent to 70 percent off.
One unexpected surprise on the sale table:cashmere.
" A lot of department stores will carry cashmere for the holidays, so January is a great time of year to buy," says Mendelsohn. "It's nuts -- it will be at least 50 percent off the ticketed price," and sometimes as much as 70 percent off, she says.
But timing is everything, so pick it up "literally right after Christmas -- Dec. 26 through January," she says.
I did just get dh a cashmere sweater for 70% off!


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JRS shaped its contribution in South Sudan – first as a region at war and later as a new country – according to need. For years, JRS concentrated on propping up the educational infrastructure: constructing and renovating classrooms, dormitories for girls, laboratories and libraries; supplying teaching and learning aids; building the capacity of school management bodies; providing desks, chalk and blackboards and paying the school fees of girls and vulnerable boys. Teacher training was provided too but JRS had no mandate to enter a classroom to supervise the teachers and learners.
Beneficiary communities in Nimule, Lobone, Kajo-Keji and Yei appreciated the JRS contribution. But an evaluation carried out in 2010 revealed that more needed to be done. Providing materials is not a sine qua non for learning. Literacy, numeracy, mathematics and sciences were found to be poor in primary and secondary schools. Among the problems identified were uncoordinated workshops for teachers.
JRS decided to set up school development teams (SDTs) to bring about positive transformation within the school by the school. Each SDT consists of three experienced and committed teachers who were trained and supervised by JRS and who in turn mentor, train and encourage their colleagues. After training SDT members, JRS followed up with monthly meetings at the school level. Characterised by a personal approach and focus on specific issues, the meetings proved helpful for the teachers, who said they acquired knowledge and confidence. In all, 36 primary schools and 16 secondary schools benefited.
The move paid off. JRS developed tools to assess progress and carried out a shared assessment with government education officials and SDT members. They found team teaching had been introduced in schools; joint JRS and government supervision had improved; and there was marked progress in making lesson plans. A ringing endorsement was the result of the 2011 South Sudan Certificate of Secondary Education, which revealed that seven out of the 10 best schools were supported by JRS. Students and teachers say SDT was one of the factors contributing to this good performance.
Another positive step – recommended by experts – taken by JRS has been to support primary schools in the use of local mother tongues as a medium of instruction; these schools registered gains in literacy and numeracy.
What will happen now that JRS is withdrawing? In August 2012, during a training workshop, teachers and government officials pledged to support SDTs. However other steps must be taken to motivate teachers. A grade-three teacher earns about 200 Sudanese pounds per month (equivalent to US$50). "We cannot send our children to decent schools yet others send their children to school outside South Sudan," said one teacher. And another: "We have an obligation to educate and feed our family as others do". Teaching is a last resort for job seekers due to the low pay.
Other challenges abound. The home environment is not conducive to learning. Very few houses have electricity and poverty is rife: one harvest a year does not provide enough food for home consumption and to generate an income too. The infrastructure of pre-independence South Sudan had been destroyed by years of civil war. Education is not isolated from other social systems; fixing the problems of formal education must go hand in hand with tackling those in health, security, agriculture and other services. Yet education is a key to development in all senses. Unless huge investment is pumped into improving our schools, low levels of literacy will persist in South Sudan.
Dr Biryaho Francis is JRS South Sudan education coordinator. This article appeared in the last issue of Servir. Click here to read more.


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Livelihoods Outcomes in the Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal
The study shows how people's livelihoods status is going through a change after being involved in managing and sustainably using the community forests in their areas. The overall objective of the study was to find out how the change is occurring at household levels and how the institutional capacity to manage and involve local users is increasing, attracting meaningful and active participation of local people.
The study comprises of two different study tools - use of institutional and household survey forms and use of perception analysis methods applied at different stages for different groups. The study was carried out in the mid-western part of the Terai Arc Landscape Program bordering with India in the southern part. The study site is one of the key bottlenecks and corridors for endangered species like Asian Elephant and Royal Bengal Tiger.
According to analyzed results, some significant improvement on livelihoods on local households could be found, such as:
- More than 1/4 of are using energy efficient devices and 20% of total biogas are attached with toilets
- About 70 per cent have at least six month food sufficiency
- 84 per cent have access to improved drinking water
- Over 1/3 one third of household members have obtained at least one capacity building or skills based trainings
A majority of community households are also able to install toilet attached biogas plants which reduce workload of women and children significantly, reduce grazing pressure on forests and the reduce the occurrence of water and airborne diseases.
In the end, the conclusions and recommendations of this study have shown the way to the strategic feedback to WWF Nepal and its partners for the kinds of issues that need to be addressed in this development and conservation programs for livelihoods.