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|MS Word (46 KB)
August 23, 1999
Dr. Thomas Henry
Executive Director
Wyoming Community College Commission
2020 Carey Avenue, 8th Floor
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002
Dear Dr. Henry:
This responds to your request for review of the data sharing arrangement between the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC) and the seven Wyoming community colleges under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g. This Office is responsible for investigating complaints and violations of the law and for providing technical assistance to educational agencies and institutions to ensure compliance with FERPA and its implementing regulations found at 34 CFR Part 99.
Summary Response: As explained below, this Office has determined that Wyoming community colleges may disclose personally identifiable, non-directory information to WCCC's Management Information System (MIS) on a nonconsensual basis to the extent that WCCC is a State educational authority engaged in the audit or evaluation of Federal and State supported education programs. Please note, however, that issues concerning the disclosure or redisclosure of information to the Wyoming Department of Employment under FERPA and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and other Federal laws are still under review. We will advise you promptly as soon as we have made a determination on these additional issues.
Mr. Tex Boggs, President of Western Wyoming Community College, first asked this Office to review WCCC's request for data from education records in a letter dated March 9, 1998.Mr. Boggs indicated that the Council of Presidents, which represents the seven community colleges in the State, was concerned about the release of personally identifiable information from education records without the student's prior written consent. Mr. Boggs indicated further that you had circulated among the college presidents Wyoming Attorney General Opinion No. 98-004, which concluded that FERPA did not prevent WCCC from obtaining access to the community college system databases. Your March 2, 1998, letter requested "full and unrestricted data transfer from these repositories" to WCCC.
This Office responded by letter dated June 1, 1998, that it did not have sufficient information to determine whether the release of data by the community colleges to WCCC would comply with the FERPA conditions for nonconsensual disclosure to authorized representatives of State educational authorities or to organizations conducting studies for educational agencies and institutions. As noted in that letter, we were advised only that WCCC wanted to archive the data indefinitely to ensure its availability for future studies.
Immediately thereafter, Ms. Linda Vosika, WCCC Chair, advised this Office by letter dated June 4, 1998, that WCCC would shortly provide for review a formal document that would address the FERPA concerns addressed in our June 1 letter. Ms. Vosika also explained that WCCC is the Statewide coordinating body for the State college system and that it could not meet its core mission without access to unit record data from the colleges. Senior Assistant Attorney General Rowena L. Heckert next advised by letter dated July 17, 1998, that she had reviewed our June 1 letter, the concerns of the colleges, and the most recent draft of WCCC's comprehensive MIS Manual, which addressed those concerns, and requested our evaluation and advice concerning the use of the MIS Manual for the stated purposes.
Ms. Vosika followed-up with a letter and documentation dated July 20, 1998, including a copy of the Wyoming statute that creates WCCC and defines its powers and duties. According to Ms. Vosika's letter, these statutory provisions demonstrate that WCCC is a legitimate State educational authority and that its powers and duties include the improvement of instruction within the meaning of these FERPA exceptions to the prior written consent rule for the disclosure of information from education records. Ms. Vosika also included Working Draft 3 of the WCCC MIS Manual dated July 17, 1998, which was offered to address our concerns that WCCC had not identified a sufficiently specific use for the information by WCCC and that the information would be maintained indefinitely.
Representatives from this Office met with Mr. Steve Butler, WCCC Senior Policy Analyst, on May 13, 1999, to discuss nonconsensual disclosure of information from education records under WCCC's MIS Handbook. At that meeting Mr. Butler explained in more detail the purposes and procedures related to the disclosures from education records sought by WCCC, and we in turn explained to Mr. Butler the requirements of FERPA with respect to disclosures of education records to State educational authorities, in particular the limitations on such disclosures, which are discussed in more detail below.
Your follow-up letter (undated) noted that "[c]hanges suggested at [the May 13] meeting have been implemented" and included a copy of the MIS Handbook (Working Draft 5) for our review, together with the WCCC "Personally Identifiable Data Request Form." Working Draft 5 is dated "July 17, 1998" at the bottom of the title page and "5/18/99" in the upper left corner. Since you indicated that changes discussed at the May 13 meeting have been implemented, we assume that 5/18/99 is the correct date for this document. In addition to review of the MIS Handbook and the overall data sharing arrangement between WCCC and the community colleges, your letter asked this Office to review WCCC's proposed study of student retention and attrition, also as discussed at our May 13 meeting. You included for our information a copy of Wyoming Program Performance Measurement Through Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Follow-Up, A Report to the Workforce Development Division dated March 1999 (WDD Report), and The Status of Statewide Student Transition Data Systems: A Survey of SHEEO Agencies, dated May 1999.
Thereafter, this Office received a letter from Mr. Boggs dated May 24, 1999, in which he states his belief that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Wyoming Department of Employment and the various community colleges fulfills FERPA requirements for the nonconsensual release of personally identifiable information from education records. In particular, Mr. Boggs explained that disclosure by the colleges to the Department of Employment is permissible as an organization conducting studies for or on behalf of educational institutions to improve instruction under 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6), and because the Department of Employment study constitutes the evaluation of a State-supported education program under 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(3)(iii). Mr. Boggs also noted that 80 or 90 percent of the time, the release of personally identifiable information from education records is not necessary to evaluate State-supported programs because data can be extracted from institutional databases in aggregate or non-personally identifiable form. One of the few exceptions to using aggregated data for program evaluation, according to Mr. Boggs, occurs when it is necessary to conduct follow-up studies on students, as proposed under the MOU between the Wyoming community colleges and the State Department of Employment.
Applicable FERPA Provisions
FERPA applies to educational agencies and institutions that receive Federal funds under any program administered by the Secretary of Education, including the seven community colleges required to submit student unit record data to WCCC under the MIS Handbook. See 34 CFR § 99.1. The purpose of FERPA it to protect the privacy interests of parents in their children's education records. FERPA affords parents the right to inspect and review and to seek amendment of those records in certain circumstances, and the right to consent to the release of personally identifiable information from education records except as specified by statute. See 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a) and (b); 34 CFR Part 99, Subparts B, C, and D. Once a student becomes 18 years of age or attends a postsecondary institution, the student becomes "eligible" and FERPA rights accorded to parents transfer to the student. 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(d); 34 CFR § 99.5.
The term "education records" is broadly defined under FERPA as:
[T]hose records, files, documents, and other materials which -
(i) contain information directly related to a student; and
(ii) are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a person acting for such agency or institution.
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(4)(A), 34 CFR § 99.3 ("Education records.")
As noted above, an educational agency or institution subject to FERPA may not have a policy or practice of permitting the release of personally identifiable information from education records without obtaining the prior written consent of the parent or eligible student except in several statutorily specified circumstances. 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1) and 34 CFR § 99.30, § 99.31.
Further, the agency or institution is required to maintain a record of each request for access to and each disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records of each student. 34 CFR § 99.32(a)(1). This includes a record of disclosures to WCCC under the requirements of the MIS Handbook. The record must include for each request the parties who have requested or received information from the record, and the legitimate interests the parties had in requesting or obtaining the information. 34 CFR § 99.32(a)(3).
FERPA also provides that the agency or institution may disclose personally identifiable, non-directory information from an education record only on the condition that the party to whom the information is disclosed will not redisclose the information to any other party without the prior consent of the parent or eligible student, and the recipients of the information may use the information only for the purposes for which the disclosure was made. 34 CFR § 99.33(a). FERPA was amended in 1994 to require that in those instances where this Office determines that a third party, such as WCCC, improperly redisclosed personally identifiable, non-directory information from education records in violation of this provision, the agency or institution may not allow that third party access to personally identifiable information from education records for at least five years. 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(4)(B); 34 CFR § 99.33(e).
The purpose of FERPA is to protect a parent's or eligible student's privacy interests in records maintained by educational agencies and institutions. These privacy interests should not be viewed as barriers to be minimized and overcome but important public safeguards to be protected. As such, the preferred method of constructing and operating databases and data exchange systems with personally identifiable information from education records is to obtain the appropriate written consent before information is released or disclosed to the database or system. Under FERPA written consent must:
- specify the records that may be disclosed;
- state the purpose of the disclosure; and
- identify the party or class of parties to whom the disclosure may be made.
34 CFR § 99.30. This Office is available to review any consent form to be used by an agency or institution. The administrative burdens on the agency or institution may actually be reduced by obtaining prior written consent to disclose information because the recordkeeping requirements in § 99.32 do not apply to disclosures made with prior written consent. 34 CFR § 99.32(d)(3).
It should be noted that the prior written consent rule under FERPA applies whether the release of information from education records will be used to make administrative decisions about an individual student or the student's family, or whether the information will eventually be compiled and used in a statistical format that is no longer personally identifiable to the student or family.
Any time an agency or institution discloses personally identifiable information from education records, a parent or eligible student must provide prior written consent unless the disclosure is specifically allowed under one of the FERPA exceptions. FERPA regulations provide that "personally identifiable information" includes, but is not limited to a "personal identifier, such as the student social security number or student number." 34 CFR § 99.3 ("Personally identifiable information").
Disclosures under WCCC MIS Handbook
The WCCC MIS Handbook requires community colleges to submit personally identifiable, unit record data on students, including the student's college code; social security number; student identification number; first and last name; date of birth; gender; ethnicity; residency status; original enrollment status; high school code; high school graduation year; transfer college or university; transfer grade point average (GPA); start and current term; credit hours attempted and earned; term and cumulative GPA; program and major; highest previous degree; various test scores; and financial aid status. The Handbook suggests on page 5 that unit record rather than aggregate data is required from the colleges in order to track individual students over time and across institutions and activities, and because "aggregate data systems lack the flexibility to examine relationships among variables and to re-aggregate data should reporting needs change" (quoting the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative).
Disclosure of Directory Information
One of the exceptions to FERPA's prior written consent rule permits the release of information that the agency or institution has designated "directory information." See 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1) and 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(11). "Directory information" is defined as information contained in an education record that "would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed" and includes the student's:
name, address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous educational agency or institution attended.
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(5)(A); 34 CFR § 99.3 ("Directory information"). In order to disclose "directory information" without prior written consent, the agency or institution is required to provide public notice to parents and eligible students in attendance of the types of personally identifiable information that has been designated and the parent's or eligible student's right to refuse to agree to the designation of certain information about the student as "directory information." 1 34 CFR § 99.37(a). The nonconsensual disclosure of directory information is not subject to the recordkeeping and redisclosure provisions discussed above.
Much of the data required from community colleges under the WCCC MIS Handbook cannot be designated and disclosed or redisclosed as "directory information" under FERPA. As this Office has consistently advised, any number used to identify a student, including the student's social security number, is considered "personally identifiable information" that may not be disclosed on a nonconsensual basis as designated "directory information," even where the individual's name is not released with the number. Similarly, grades and test scores, credit hours attempted and earned, ethnicity, and financial aid status is the type of information that may not be designated as "directory information" under FERPA.
In some instances, data sharing systems may operate solely on the basis of directory information, such as a new program for tracking transfer students established by the National Student Loan Clearinghouse, which we discuss below in connection with WCCC's Retention Study. As noted below, State or local educational authorities may establish a data system of personally identifiable, non-directory information from education records so long as the information is obtained and maintained in accordance with applicable FERPA requirements.
Disclosure to State and Local Educational Authorities or Organizations Conducting Studies for Educational Agencies and Institutions
As you know, one of the exceptions to the prior written consent rule under FERPA permits disclosure to "authorized representatives of . . . State and local educational authorities" when the disclosure is "in connection with an audit or evaluation of Federal or State supported education programs, or for the enforcement of or compliance with Federal legal requirements which relate to those programs." 20 U.S.C. §§ 1232g(b)(1)(C)(i)(III), (b)(3), (b)(5); 34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(3)(iii) and 99.35(a). Authorities that receive information under this provision must 1) protect the information in a manner that does not permit personal identification of individuals by anyone else; and 2) destroy the information when it is no longer needed for the purposes for which non-consensual release was authorized. 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(3); 34 CFR § 99.35(b).
The phrase "State or local educational authorities" is not defined in FERPA or elsewhere under Federal law or regulation.2 This Office has interpreted the phrase to include any entity or person that is responsible under State or local authority for the administration of educational programs and functions, including the supervision, direction, coordination or control of educational activities at the postsecondary, secondary, or elementary level. Based on information provided by WCCC setting forth its statutory powers and duties, we find that WCCC is a "State educational authority" under FERPA.
In particular, WCCC is responsible for overall administration of the program of State support for the community college system; promulgating and adopting rules that will ensure the coordinated
operation and maintenance of the State's community college system, including basic audit requirements; reviewing, approving, disapproving, and terminating academic and vocational-technical programs; and establishing an effective management information system for the community college system. Wyoming Community College Code, 21-18-202. Powers and duties of the commission (1997). Under these provisions, nonconsensual disclosure of personally identifiable information from the community colleges to WCCC is permissible under 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(3)(iii) to the extent that the disclosure is part of the audit or evaluation of Federal or State supported education programs and the requirements in § 99.35 of the regulations regarding redisclosure and destruction of data have been met.
The WCCC MIS Handbook at page 6 states that the data collected from the community colleges will be used to "[p]rovide accurate management information to evaluate state supported community college programs and improve instruction." Certain items listed under "Special Studies" and "Strategic Plan Objectives" support this conclusion. Accordingly, Wyoming community colleges may disclose personally identifiable information from education records to the WCCC MIS, without prior written consent, so that WCCC may carry out its responsibilities for evaluating educational programs.
However, the Handbook also suggests that information disclosed to the WCCC system will be redisclosed in ways that may not meet the FERPA requirement for disclosure to State educational authorities as part of the audit or evaluation of Federal or State supported education programs. Similarly, the Wyoming Report to the Workforce Development Division and accompanying Memorandum of Understanding indicate that WCCC will release personally identifiable information to the Wyoming Department of Employment, or have the community colleges release that information directly to the Department of Employment (as suggested in Mr. Boggs' letter of May 24, 1999), for purposes that may not comply with FERPA requirements for disclosure of information to State and local educational authorities. As previously noted, these specific issues will be address by separate letter.
FERPA also permits nonconsensual disclosure of information to "organizations conducting studies for, or on behalf of, educational agencies or institutions to . . . develop or administer predictive tests, administer student aid programs, or improve instruction." 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6); see 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1)(F). Only representatives of the research organization may have access to personally identifiable information, and the information must be destroyed when no longer needed for the purposes for which the study was conducted.Id.
Based on the information provided, this Office has determined that Wyoming community colleges may disclose personally identifiable, non-directory information from education records to the WCCC MIS for purposes of auditing and evaluating education programs, provided that information will be destroyed when it is no longer needed for audit or evaluation purposes. We are still reviewing issues concerning the redisclosure of information by WCCC to the State Department of Employment and other agencies, or the direct disclosure of information to those agencies by the community colleges, and will advise you promptly once we have made a determination.
As noted previously, FERPA provides that where information from education records is disclosed to authorized representatives of State or local educational authorities or officials, or to organizations conducting studies to improve instruction, the information must be destroyed when it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected. See 34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(6)(ii)(B) and 99.35(b). The WCCC MIS Handbook provides that data from community colleges will be retained for ten years, but we have been unable to locate in the materials that you provided any explanation why it is necessary to retain the data for that period of time. This was one of the items discussed at our May 13 meeting with Mr. Butler, and we ask that you provide us with this information so that we may resolve part of your inquiry.
WCCC Retention Study
Your most recent letter also indicates that WCCC intends to request personally identifiable information from education records in order to "study the retention/attrition rates of students in the Wyoming Community College System." As set forth in your letter, the "end purposes of the study are to identify policy and practice strategies that are effective in reducing attrition, prepare a comparative report on those policies and practices, and through institutional adoption of the most effective practices, reduce student attrition throughout the Wyoming College System." You also explained that this study requires obtaining information regarding students who have transferred to other institutions and that for this purpose WCCC plans to use the National Student Loan Clearinghouse to verify the enrollment status of former Wyoming College System students.
We find that the nonconsensual release of personally identifiable information from community colleges to WCCC for purposes of the retention study is permissible as a disclosure to a State educational authority in connection with the evaluation of a State supported education program, 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(3)(iii), or to an organization conducting studies for an institution to improve instruction, 34 CFR § 99.31(6)(i)(C). As summarized in your letter, WCCC will redisclose only directory information to the National Student Loan Clearinghouse in order to determine whether students have transferred to other institutions as part of this study. (Procedures need to be implemented to ensure that WCCC does not submit directory information for students who have blocked the release of this data in accordance with 34 CFR § 99.37.) This Office has also independently determined that the Clearinghouse is able to provide this information to WCCC through the release of directory information only. In these circumstances, the retention study as outlined in your follow-up letter appears to conform to the requirements of FERPA.
This Office appreciates the opportunity to comment on the applicability of FERPA to the WCCC data sharing program. We will advise you as soon as possible of our determinations in regard to the issues concerning redisclosure of information by WCCC, or direct disclosure of information by the Wyoming community colleges to the Wyoming Department of Employment and other agencies.
Mr. LeRoy S. Rooker
Family Policy Compliance Office
Honorable Barbara Cubin
Ms. Rowena L. Heckert
Senior Assistant Attorney General (Wyoming)
Mr. Tex Boggs
Western Wyoming Community College
1At the postsecondary level, the institution would provide this notice to students in attendance at the institution.
2The Department's General Administrative Regulations define a "State educational agency" as the State Board of Education or other agency or officer primarily responsible for the supervision of public elementary and secondary schools in a state. "Local educational agency" is defined as any public institution or agency that has administrative control and direction of a public elementary or secondary school." See 34 CFR Part77.


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When Sprint launched the HTC EVO 4G many customers were confused about the mandatory $10 "4G fee", which was described as a "first-class seat on a plane."
We had no issue with Sprint charging extra for the advanced speeds offered by their 4G WiMAX network, but the problem is that many customers live outside the 4G coverage area and yet they were still stuck with the fee.
That could be changing soon according to a SEC filing made by Clearwire. The document reveals that some 810,000 customers are out there with an EVO 4G or Epic 4G, but they are located outside a 4G area and Sprint has begun to bicker over what they are paying Clearwire per customer.
Clearwire is currently struggling to finance their network build out and recently announced they were cutting 15% of their workforce. Sprint has poured billions into Clearwire and would be in major trouble if they defaulted on their loans, but I have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. Several Sprint execs recently resigned from Clearwire's board, but Sprint controls 54% of Clearwire.
Whatever happens Sprint still owns the majority of Clearwire, which is badly in need of money. We have reported that T-Mobile was in talks with Clearwire to possibly help fund their network buildout, but I doubt that Sprint wants that to occur (unless they decide to take their losses and run).
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if WiMAX fails or not. Clearwire still owns more wireless spectrum than anyone else and they could switch to LTE in a couple of years. The only problem with that idea is that the first-gen of LTE gear is major expensive and Clearwire can only afford to stick with WiMAX for the near future.
If a bidding war erupts over Clearwire's spectrum, I'll put my money with T-Mobile and their parent company Deutsche Telekom.

subset: commoncrawl


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Series 25204
Spanish Fork (Utah) Publications
Dates: 1978-
These records are housed in the Utah State Archives' permanent storage room.
Scope and Content
These are pamphlets, leaflets, studies, proposals and similar material printed by or for the city of Spanish Fork or any of its departments, subdivisions or programs, and made available to the public, or the last manuscript report if not published.
"City News Review" Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring 1978)
Chronological by year
Access Restrictions
This series is classified as Public.
Preferred Citation
Cite the Utah State Archives and Records Service, the creating agency name, the series title, and the series number.
Indexing Terms
Page Last Updated October 18, 2012.


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Sleep Outside: 2 Beds, 2 Chaises and a Papasan!
If you've never taken a nap outdoors, you have to try it. It's so relaxing, I'm convinced it's good for the soul. There's something to be said for sleeping with the combination of warm sun and gentle breeze. It seems to unravel all the stress of the day. If you've been thinking about stretching your legs outside, this outdoor furniture is made of long-lasting materials like steel, natural wicker and teak, making it both handsome and eco-friendly. Read more for details.
1. Float by Design Mobel, designed by David Trubridge. (Ask dealer for pricing.)
2. Round Outdoor Bed with Canopy from In Mode. $1,389.00
3. Double Teak Chaise Lounge from Evino Design. $499.99
4. Sunbrella Pool Outdoor Lounger from Viesso. $3,613.35
5. Papasan Chair & Frame - Brown from Pier 1. $67.95
(Images as linked.)


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(215) 289-7200
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Enjoy fast and easy car rental with Enterprise Rent-A-Car at our branch in Philadelphia, PA. Just one of the 7,200 branches in over 30 countries helping with your car rental needs.
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©2018 Cox Search, Inc. All rights reserved. Data provided in part by Localeze and Valpak.


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Apple, Google, Cisco, HP, Oracle Among Silicon Valley Cos. That Avoid Paying Billions in Taxes
By Matt Drange, Center for Investigative Reporting
The largest tech companies in the Bay Area have avoided paying federal taxes on more than $225 billion they have accumulated through foreign subsidiaries, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show.
By sheltering their assets overseas, Silicon Valley companies such as Apple, Google, eBay and Hewlett-Packard are able to reduce their annual taxes in some cases by billions of dollars, according to a Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of the 50 largest firms' financial statements filed in 2012.
Sponsored By
Widespread tax avoidance by some of California's most prominent companies has contributed to federal revenue shortfalls as President Barack Obama and Congress consider whether to cut government programs. Some lawmakers say the tax code disproportionately favors powerful companies at the expense of other taxpayers.
"What it demonstrates is that tech firms in particular have very low worldwide rates, and their demands for a more competitive U.S. tax system ring hollow," said Edward Kleinbard, a tax law professor at the University of Southern California and former chief of staff for the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. "In fact, the U.S. tax system subsidizes them, and a more neutral tax system would require tech firms to pay substantially more taxes."
The U.S. tax code allows companies to reduce their tax burden by accumulating assets overseas, and some of the biggest names in the tech industry have perfected the tactic. Instead of paying the top U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent, dozens of Silicon Valley giants maintain global tax rates below 15 percent, the Center for Investigative Reporting's review of annual financial statements found.
Among the 50 firms, 47 reported having assets overseas that were "permanently reinvested," a designation that allows them to avoid recording the money as taxable U.S. income, thereby deferring payment of federal and state taxes indefinitely. Many companies designate their holdings overseas even though much of the money is invested in the United States.
Five companies – Cisco Systems, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google and Oracle – accounted for more than two-thirds of the $225 billion in accumulated foreign earnings as of Dec. 31, 2012.
Tech companies that relied on foreign income to reduce their taxes include:
- Apple, which reported $40.4 billion in holdings overseas and had an effective global tax rate of 12.6 percent over the past three years
- eBay, which reported $10 billion overseas and had an effective tax rate of 15.3 percent over the past three years
- Google, which reported $24.8 billion overseas and had an effective tax rate of 17.6 percent over the past three years
- Yahoo, which reported $3.2 billion overseas and had an effective tax rate of 17.9 percent over the past three years
- Cisco, which reported $41.3 billion overseas and had an effective tax rate of 20.9 percent over the past three years
The companies declined to comment on their offshore holdings or the amount of taxes they paid. The effective tax rate is based on the Center for Investigative Reporting's calculation using the firm's publicly available information; companies are not required to make public how much they paid the Internal Revenue Service.
Many of Silicon Valley's biggest firms will benefit from a two-year extension of a tax provision – included in the January fiscal cliff deal – allowing them to defer taxes on royalties earned by their foreign subsidiaries. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates this will cost the U.S. government more than $1.5 billion in the next two years.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, charged at a hearing in September that U.S. companies have stockpiled $1.7 trillion in earnings overseas, all of which has gone untaxed by the U.S. Treasury.
"The bottom line of our investigation is that some multinationals use our current tax system to engage in shams and gimmicks to avoid paying the taxes they owe," Levin said at the hearing. "It is a system that multinationals have used to shift billions of dollars of profit offshore and avoid billions of dollars in U.S. taxes, to their enormous benefit."
On Feb. 7, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, introduced a bill that would eliminate companies' ability to defer taxes on income deemed permanently reinvested.
Levin's subcommittee is examining Silicon Valley companies that have become efficient at avoiding taxes in part by transferring money among foreign subsidiaries in countries designated by the U.S. as tax havens.
Kimberly Clausing, an economics professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore., estimates that the federal government is losing more than $90 billion in tax revenue annually from U.S. businesses that transfer earnings overseas.
That amounts to nearly half the corporate tax paid by all U.S. companies in 2011. It would be enough to fund public schools and higher education in California for more than two years or cover 206 days of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to state and federal budget data.
For many multinational corporations based in the United States, Clausing said, the top corporate income tax rate of 35 percent is a myth.
"I think our system's stated intention and its actual practice have diverged to a point where it's bordering on ridiculous," she said. "If you look at the firms in question, they aren't paying anywhere near that rate."
Of the 50 largest Bay Area tech companies, 17 estimated the U.S. taxes they owed on overseas earnings. If these companies were taxed on that money today, they would owe the U.S. Treasury $25.9 billion, according to their own estimates. The other companies avoided disclosure by citing an exception that estimating their tax burden was impractical.
"It's a disgrace," said Kleinbard, the USC professor. "It's entirely optional whether companies provide U.S. tax estimates on offshore earnings."
Most of the companies analyzed by the Center for Investigative Reporting support a lobbying effort in Washington for a one-time tax holiday that would allow them to transfer foreign earnings to the United States at rates as low as 5 percent. An industry group, which calls itself the WIN America Campaign, has spent $760,000 on lobbying since it was formed in 2011, federal records show. Its backers include the Silicon Valley Tax Directors Group, made up of representatives from dozens of tech companies.
A similar amnesty was offered in 2004. A 2009 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 92 percent of the $300 billion that companies transferred to the U.S. under that amnesty ended up with shareholders.
Kleinbard said it's a common misconception that assets held by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies remain outside the country. In reality, much of the money is invested here in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds and government-backed securities. The difference, he said, is that the investments go untaxed.
"The money is not sitting in a strongbox buried in the sand," he said.
A study of Apple, Google and about two dozen other companies by Levin's Senate subcommittee in 2011 found that 46 percent of the money the firms held "overseas" actually was invested in U.S. Treasury bonds and other government-backed assets, such as mutual funds and stocks.
"The data shows that, in many cases, the funds that corporations identify as being offshore are really onshore," the report said. "The presence of those funds in the United States undermines the argument that undistributed accumulated foreign earnings are 'trapped' abroad, because nearly half of those funds are already located right here in the United States."
Sponsored By
This story was edited by Richard C. Paddock and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.
The independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting is the country's largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit www.cironline.org. Contact the reporter at email@example.com.


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Gumdrop Drop Tech Military Edition
$70 gumdrop.com
"Designed for civilians, inspired by military", this case doesn't only look like tank armour, it protects your iPad 3 like it. A snap-on polycarbonate cover ensures the screen remains scratch-free while the main casing offers several layers of shock absorption, with extra protection around the front and back camera ports. There are even dust filters!
Grove Bamboo Case
$129 grovemade.com
Hey bro, show your love of things nature-related with this all-natural case. There's sturdy bamboo to protect the back and sides of your iPad, and a leather front cover emblazoned with the image of a tree.
iSkin Agent 6 Sling
$79 iskin.com
If you longboard to your job at a creative agency every morning, this might be the most fuss-free way of carrying the iPad 3 you inevitably own. It's a cross-body sling and its soft lining and premium ballistic nylon keep the tablet snug and secure. There's also a front pouch for a phone and an external, detachable pouch for other items.
Apple Leather Smart Cover
£59 apple.com
We know it's not exactly new, but you can't beat the Smart Cover for sheer ingenious design: the way it clips magnetically to the tablet and closes tightly over the screen is nothing short of brilliant. The plastic cover is £20 cheaper, but we'd always pick the leather model for maximum stylishness.
Proporta Ted Baker Leather Style Case
£80 proporta.com
Brit fashion icon Ted Baker has already turned his hand to this faux leather case for the iPad 3, which replicates the look of crocodile skin. Opt for the white finish for maximum bling.
10 of the best music hero apps
Elder Scrolls MMO set to debut in May
List of apps optimised for the iPad 3's Retina Display grows


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8 Cool Storage Ideas For the Garden Hose
A recent transplant from a 400-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn to a single family home in the midwest, I'm on a hunt for something I haven't given much thought in my adult life: garden hose storage. And it ain't pretty:
It turns out that it's not so simple to just walk into the local hardware store and pick up something simple, modern(ish), and elegant for storing the garden hose. Instead, you're met with huge, clumsy, plastic contraptions that you wouldn't want junking up the front of the house. So that led me on a deeper search to turn up ten cool options. Here's what I found:
1) Wall Mount Hose Jockey at Modernica, $109
2) 3-in-1 Stainless Steel Hose Reel from Plow & Hearth, $330
3) Resin Hose Pot with Granite Finish at Yardlover, $58
4) Wall Mounted Hose Reel by Yard Butler, $109
5) Rust Proof Hose Hanger by Yard Butler, $10
6) a DIY idea from Sunset
7) Gecko's Toes, $15
8) a DIY with a galvanized pail from DIY Del Ray
(images as linked above)


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Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I have developed a method, which I call the variational principle—for evaluating whether a phrase constitutes an eggcorn of a valid/established phrase.
By way of example, I would conclude that "in our mitts" must be an eggcorn of "in our midst" because there is no common substitute (or synonym) for "mitts" used for the same purpose; One does not commonly say "in our gloves" or "in our hands"—-but virtually everyone has heard the phrase "in our mitts."
Similarly, when one says that a person speaks "elegantly", one must be invoking an eggcorn of "eloquently" because 1. one would probably not have selected "elegantly" if the word "eloquently" did not exist, and 2. one rarely ever describes the way one speaks using a synonym of "elegantly."
So, if I might take a stab at defining my variational principle…
When one evaluates whether a phrase is an eggcorn of another, long-established phrase, one must check for three things:
1. Is there a closeness in the sounds of the words? (Part of the usual eggcorn test),
2. Would one have used the particular words in the alleged eggcorn phrase if the sound-alike words in the original phrase did not exist?
3. Does one ever use synonyms of the sound-alike words in the alleged eggcorn?
To qualify as an eggcorn, the answers should be:
1. Yes,
2. No,
3. No.
Rebuttals welcome.
-Joe Krozel
I think your approach is sound as far as it goes—I suspect all experienced eggcorn-hunters already follow some version of this test.
My problem with your test as formulated is that it doesn't tackle the issue that's most important on this website: is a verbal substitution a true eggcorn or just a malapropism?
Let's use the phrase "foundling fathers" as an example. I posted on this a few months ago, and I put the post on the "Slips, etc." page because "foundling fathers" is not an eggcorn; it just doesn't make any sense in the contexts in which it's used. And the people who use the phrase don't know what "foundling" means, or aren't thinking about that as they're posting. But your test—if I understand it—would call this an eggcorn. It's not.
You could fix it, I guess, by adding "the substitution must make sense in context" or something like that. But for most people, that's not going to help a lot. People who think they've found an eggcorn will maintain that it kinda sorta makes sense. Non-finders will say it doesn't. I usually think the non-finders are being more objective. But then again, I've also been the emotionally invested "finder" who couldn't persuade others.
In any case, I'm not convinced that your formula solves the most pressing problem.
Yes, I had assumed that the misquoters thought they were making sense, and I personally didn't see the problem with that. My concern is moreso whether an eggcorn could make TOO MUCH sense, and I had concluded that it was not a problem as long as the original eggcorn was born of misinterpretation.
Consider the problem of deciding whether "to speak elegantly" is an eggcorn of "to speak eloquently". I explained elsewhere that I believe it is. But now, isn't it curious that another writer could juxtapose the eggcorn and the original in the same sentence?...
Tertullian: Did Tertullian use Minucius Felix' Octavius?... it should be emphasized that he follows Cicero in thinking that to speak elegantly and eloquently on a subject is part of the philosopher's task. ...
www.tertullian.org/minucius/mf.htm – 37k – Cached – Similar pages
My earlier concern was that this might disqualify "elegant" from being considered an eggcorn of "eloquent," but I don't believe it does—as long as a single writer was thrown off-course. In fact, I would not be surprised to see phrases like "on that faithful and fateful day…" or "It was all the rave, and indeed all the rage." or "we don't take kindly to those who perpetrate and perpetuate crime." or "There is a fiend in our midst who will soon be in our mitts" or "Criminals will be prosecuted if not simply persecuted." Haven't these all effectively evolved into verbal substitutions or malapropisms after the fact?
Yes, the "Contribute" forum is full of non-eggcorns: either misspellings, typos, or just "replacement of a word of similar sound and or meaning in a familiar phrase" These do belong in the other forum. We clearly need to define our quarry!
To me a proper eggcorn is NOT usually a "one time event", and ends up being more or less widely used, so that it becomes part of the language. I suspect the #1 reason eggcorns evolve is that the changed word is itself no longer used (or the usage is not seen as making sense), but people liked the familiar phrase (primarily in speaking) so they kept using it, but eventually substituted another word that sounded like the original, but was in the "current vocabulary". The new phrase itself will either make no literal sense ("pretty please" for "prithy please"), or may seem to make more sense ("icebox lettuce" for "iceberg lettuce"). The actual meaning or use of the original phrase may or may not be retained in the eggcorn.
Eggcorns are primarily oral/aural in structure and history; they are like fossils, giving us information about the past. They are also quite lovable; calling them "tiny little poems" (somewhere on this website) is just perfect!
Oh, and I think eggcorn is one word (not "egg corn"), just like "acorn". This will also make it much easier to Google "eggcorn". Dave Pevear, Houston, TX
If an Eggcorn has to become widely used in place of the original (correct) phrase, then "eggcorn" itself is a really lousy name for the phenomenon, because I don't think that eggcorn is widely used to mean acorn. It's more like a one-time event. So "eggcorn" is not an Eggcorn.
While it's a cute name, the Eggcorn monicker invites all kinds of mis-hits for people trying to understand and join in on the concept because it doesn't fulfill the requirements of the thing that it supposedly describes.
Last edited by kdanieli (2006-08-26 08:45:34)
Part of the problem here is just what we mean by, say, "widely used." "Eggcorn" may not be really widely used, but it also isn't a "one-time event." In the third Language Log article devoted to eggcorns (Jan 7, 2004; http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language … 00310.html), Mark Liberman gave a count of 62 hits for "eggcorn," most of which, he said, looked to be authentic. A few of those are now part of the Database entry for acorn>>eggcorn; it's clear from looking at them that "eggcorn" was being used in quite a number of different registers and types of places. 62 hits means "eggcorn" was still relatively rare, but I think any truly eggcornish reanalysis with that many hits is definitely worth recording.
(Two and a half years after Liberman's article, we can't count the authentic hits for "eggcorn" as "acorn" on Google because the linguistic term has caught on so well that it now gets over 69,000 hits.)
Also, the word "eggcorn" was used for this phenomenon in the very first Language Log article that talked about it. (Well, technically, it was coined a few days after the article first appeared.) So the concept was named before people had really gotten to work defining it. Still, I personally think the choice of "eggcorn" was an inspired one. And in any case, the word is now so well established that there's no going back.


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Mushroom Observer
Last updated over 2 years ago
Mushroom Observer is a collaborative mycology-related website. The community supporting Mushroom Observer is committed to sharing and expanding people's knowledge of Fungi at all levels from beginners to world authorities. Users provide content to the site in the form of observations, species descriptions, discussions, voting and expert review. All copyrighted content on the Mushroom Observer is available under one of the Creative Commons licenses and all source code for the site is open source. Last indexed September 3, 2015


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Image: Freshwater fish, Cleithrolepis granulata
Freshwater fish, Cleithrolepis granulata. Middle Triassic, 240 million years ago.
- Creator:
- Anne Musser
- Rights:
- © Australian Museum
A ray-finned fish that grew to about 30 centimetres long. The lower jaw was weak and had teeth only at the tip.
Last Updated:
Tags fish, freshwater, Middle Triassic, dinosaur world,


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Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry
Comprehensive Description
In 1914, the French biologist Maurice Caullery described a long, slender tube-dwelling worm that had been collected in Indonesia around 1900 during the Dutch Siboga expedition. He erected both a new genus, Siboglinum, and a new family, Siboglinidae, for this unusual gutless worm (Caullery 1914, cited in McHugh 1997 and Pleijel et al. 2009). In 1951, Siboglinum was placed by Ivanov in the then recognized phylum Pogonophora (Ivanov 1951, cited in Pleijel et al. 2009). In 1995, phylogenetic analyses by Rouse and Fauchald led them to conclude that (pogonophorans + vestimentiferans) should possibly be united as a single, family level taxon within the polychaete annelids. They suggested reverting to the name Lamellisabellidae for this family (from Uschakov 1933, cited in Pleijel et al. 2009), but later recognized that the name Siboglinidae preceded their proposed name and should be used instead (Rouse and Fauchald 1997). McHugh (1997) also concluded that the pogonophorans (including the vestimentiferans) should be placed together within Caullery's family Siboglinidae. Pleijel et al. (2009) trace in great detail the historical taxonomic and nomenclatural treatment of the group of worms now treated as the Siboglinidae.


text:
Kawasaki Folding Rear Shift Foot Pedal
Easy To Install with your OEM Hardware
Similar in Size and Shape to OEM Pedals
Extremely Affordable
Distinguished Looking
High Tensile Strength Aluminum Construction
Folding Design helps prevent damage in case of a fall
Fitment Guide
This Shift Pedal will fit:
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 1998-2004
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6RR 1998-2004
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-9R 1998-2003
Kawasaki Ninja ZZR 600 2005-2007
Lever Install: Remove Old levers. Grease Pivot Point of the New Levers. Do NOT over-tighten the Bolts, Levers are not meant to be Clamped down. Be sure that the Brake Cylinder Actuator is properly seated. As with any Motorcycle lever, OEM or Aftermarket, Test the Lever Performance BEFORE Riding. Be sure they are installed properly and allow for normal brake operation. When in doubt have a professional install the levers


text:
Fill out this form or call 1-800-401-0486
to speak with one of our Area Experts.
The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the IDX Program of The Greater Lansing Association of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Weichert Realtors include the name of the listing broker.
Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS.
The information being provided is for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
Data is updated as of 11/21/2018.


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Please enter a FBGA Code.
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Premium TIG Torch Package. Water-Cooled 225 Amp Flexible, Interchangeable Head Torch with 50' (15.2m) High-Flex Rubber Power, Water and Gas Hoses. Includes 9-70 and 1726 Series 70 Degree Heads.
|225 DCSP maximum, 100% duty cycle
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|Electrode capacity
|.020" (.5mm) -- 5/32" (4.0mm) varies by head type
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|Water flow
|1qt./min. (0.946 L/min.)
|Maximum pressure
|50 psi (3.448 BAR)


text:
Where's Lord Toranaga when you need him?
The sixteenth century was an interesting time in Japan. The missionaries were
running rampant, Portuguese traders were poxy bastards, and some guy named Anjin-san
was causing a lot of trouble.
Okay, maybe that was just James Clavell's version of Japanese history, but
it turns out that the real thing was just as exciting. Powerful Daimyo vied
for seats of power in order to fulfill their own ambitions. A few men in particular
would stand out from the rest and ultimately become known as the "three unifiers"
of Japan – Oda Nobunaga, whom you may recall from the Nobunaga's Ambition
games; Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the pitiful commoner turned powerful Taiko; and Tokugawa
Ieyasu, the man who stars in the very first Playstation 2 strategy game.
That game is Kessen. Though not without its problems, this is a solid
first effort.
At the start of the game, players take on the role of Tokugawa Ieyasu, supreme
commander of Japan's eastern forces. Eventually, players will be able to take
the Toyotomi side as Mitsunari Ishida, supreme commander of the western forces.
With the tensions between the Tokugawa in the east and the Toyotomi in the west,
the stage is set at Sekegahara for an all out battle to decide the fate of Japan.
Kessen is a real-time tactical strategy game in the most extreme sense
of the word. There are no resources to manage and no missions to complete; it's
just one army against another. Most RTS gamers are used to sending their units
into battle on speedy wings to annihilate their enemies with a well-timed nuclear
strike. This is definitely not the case with Kessen. The last time I
checked, soldiers of the Warring States period had to run along without jet
propulsion and would annihilate their enemies mainly with blades, not bombs.
With this in mind, Kessen plays the part of a very realistic RTS. Players
issue commands to their officers, which will lead their units slowly but surely
towards the objective. With thousands of men to command and move about a large
battlefield, this process can sometimes take a while, just as in real life.
And depending on your strategy, a single battle can last a couple of hours.
Not a game for action fans whatsoever.
Your commanders also have their own personalities and will not just follow
you blindly. They will initiate attacks against enemy units and will even perform
special maneuvers of their own initiative (such as a charge or raid) from time
to time. Sometimes, they will even challenge enemy officers to a duel. Winning
one of these events can boost the morale (zeal) of that unit's troops. I wish
these fights were to the death, though. It's amazing how the officers never
On the
downside of command, officers will also protest orders they do not agree with
and even refuse an order they think is just plain ludicrous. This can be frustrating,
but it adds greatly to the realism of the game.
Kessen has three phases of gameplay, which gives the player almost
total control over the battle plans. First up is the political phase. Here you
meet with your most trusted advisors to review the enemy's forces. Subvert enemy
plans and lure potential defects to your side. On the home front, choose which
of your officers will accompany you on the next campaign. When all of this has
been completed, it's on to the war council.
The war council is basically an exclusive party for a bunch of guys in funny
hats. Generally speaking, the funnier the hat, the more important the head under
it is. In meeting with your officers, you will plan out strategies for the battle
at hand. How will you position your troops? What targets will they have? Will
your army take an offensive or defensive stance? And most importantly, is your
hat the biggest one around?
When all of the planning is done, it's time to go to war. Most of your time
spent with Kessen will take place on the battlefield, so make sure your
sword and your wits are sharp. Battles take place in real-time, only stopping
as you issue orders. Your sole objective is simply to defeat the enemy commander's
unit. This sounds pretty easy, but throw in tens of thousands of opposing soldiers
and things get a bit'messy.
Real life war is indeed a messy thing, but battles in Kessen are just
the opposite. While it take a little time to get used to the display, command
in battles is a lot easier than it looks. Icons for each of your officers are
onscreen and selecting them highlights their position on the map. This also
brings up a list of available commands and voila – an order is given.
the battlefield is relatively easy with Kessen's player controlled camera.
There's also a mini-battle map that will allow you to see the entire battlefield
at once. On the other end of the scope, battles can be zoomed in to show the
carnage up close and personal. Although this feature really puts you directly
into the fighting, players really see Kessen's limitations.
Namely, no one dies.
This is truly odd. When you manually zoom down to the battlefield, you'll
see hordes of soldiers locked in immortal combat. I've seen three horsemen thrashing
a single foot soldier that absolutely refuses to die. At this level,
the realism that Kessen strives so hard to achieve is demolished. The
fact that there isn't any blood is one thing, but immortal soldiers? Where can
I hire some of those guys? At least you'll see the mortality during special
maneuvers. It's one thing to be able to withstand a sword cut and another to
withstand a cannon blast.
And boy do those cannon blasts look good. In fact, the vast majority of the
game looks great. Kessen pays close attention to graphical detail from
the rising battlefield dust to the look on soldiers' faces. But if you think
the game looks good, wait 'til you see the FMV. Kessen shows off the
absolute best FMV for any of the Playstation 2's launch titles. It's almost
like watching a movie as you see the story unfold.
The story also adds greatly to the feel of the game. Players can get involved
with the intrigues and watch as the lord commanders manage their adversity.
To top it all off, Kessen's audio arrangement is awesome. Sound effects
are spot-on and the score is handled brilliantly. Movie quality music draws
players into the game's story better than a cold beer on a hot day.
If it's historic, realistic real-time strategy you're looking for, Kessen
delivers. However, this is not a game for the impatient, and some gamers might
find the slow pace and long battles to get a bit boring. But ruling all of Japan
should take a while, right?


text:
Mo. Man Charged in Drive-By Shooting of 4-Year-Old
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A suburban St. Louis man on probation for a drug conviction has been charged with wounding a 4-year-old girl in a drive-by shooting.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 23-year-old Nathaniel J. Pool of Ferguson was charged Sunday with six counts of first-degree assault and seven counts of armed criminal action. He's jailed on a $200,000 cash bail.
No information is listed in online records, and it wasn't clear if he had an attorney.
Police say Pool fired shots Thursday night from a passing car, injuring the girl as she walked up the steps of a home with her mother. Police say the girl was an unintended victim and that the target was standing nearby. Witnesses identified Pool as the shooter.
The girl was released Friday from a hospital.


text:
Alejandro Soza needed a new wordpress theme design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 96 designs submitted by 13 freelance designers.
Hepatitis.cl is an informational site for patients and doctors about hepatitis and liver diseases.
Primary users are patients looking for information about hepatitis and liver diseases.
The site is also used by health professionals looking for quick information about the disease, for example for online calculation of certain scores (like the MELD or the Child-Pugh score).
I need a clean, simple, uncluttered, clear, with readable (big) fonts and with easy navigation Wordpress theme. It should look as an informational website, not as a blog. I prefer a white background (it may have an additional color, such as gray, above and below the body). The new logo of the site is in the attached file. The logo has orange and gray, but the webpage design doesn´t have to keep that exact colors (please experiment).
Patients should be able to quickly find the specific disease or condition they are interested. This is very important. These diseases and conditions will be organized in categories and subcategories.
I will serve Adsense adds, so they should integrate with the design.
I need 3 templates:
- Homepage: It should have the online MELD calculator (see current page), a space for a featured article and some easy way to display categories and sub-categories of articles. I doesn´t need to have several images.
- Content page: Probably 2 columns will be OK.
- Forum (optional).
The site is currently in Spanish, but it will be launched as a multilingual site (at least Spanish, English, French, Chinese) with a plug in (qTranslate), so it will need some navigation layout for changing the language.
A layered PSD is required.
KISS: keep it simple.


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|2006-05-08, 19:47
|Link #22
Kairin-chan's #1 Fan
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Canada
Are the mods EVER going to choose a mascot?
This is getting ridiculous. 4+ months after the contest ends and no result. To be honest, I don't even care who (if anyone) wins. Either tell us who won, or say that everyone's entries sucked and we don't want them as mascots so we can just forget about this contest.
As of now, the people who entered might still have hope that this contest will end. I on the other hand, know that the mods have given up or just plain don't care. No one can be busy for 4 months straight and not spend even 1 minute a day to judge the entries. I don't buy the "we're busy" blah blah blah stuff.
There I said what I wanted to say. You can disqualify me or whatever I don't care anymore.
This contest is a joke now.
|2006-05-09, 04:12
|Link #23
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
We did come to a final agreement for the winner Saturday night and we've been waiting for GHDpro (who is currently in Japan studying, so doesn't have his usual internet access) to confirm the winner. He has just done that in past few hours (no doubt unaware of your post) so we were finally in a position to announce the winner. We were just waiting for NightWish to be on-line next so he could make the announcement (but since it's currently Monday morning he's most likely at work).
|2006-05-09, 07:34
|Link #24
Kairin-chan's #1 Fan
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Canada
How come if the winner was decided on Saturday you didn't announce you were waiting to get approval from GHDpro? Then I wouldn't have had to make that post (was in a bad mood when I wrote it due to unrelated things, but stick by it anyway). I know you said you were waiting for Nightwish, but I don't understand why another mod couldn't do it? I realize Nightwish started the contest but...
Anyways, congrats to the winner...whoever it is.
|2006-05-09, 11:21
|Link #25
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
The point is...
It's effectively NightWish's contest, he's the one who has been driving the contest and he's the one who will personally pay for the prize entirely out of his own pocket, so it's only fair that he should be the one who announces the winner.
AnimeSuki is GHDpro's creation and so it's only fair that he should be made aware of the mascot winner before an announcement is made. GHDpro has been studying in Japan for the last few weeks and as a side effect he isn't available as frequently as he would like. He had only just seen the contest result this morning (i.e. only about 10 hours ago) and has given the go ahead. While he did this after you made your post, I suspect he was not aware of it.
Without the green light from these two key players, it would be wrong for anyone else to make the announcement.
I just checked the last time NightWish was logged into the forums and I can see it was late Saturday night, i.e. just a few minutes after he made the internal announcement that we had come to a final decision on the winner and therefore we were just waiting for the word from GHDpro. If I remember correctly he said he might not be around, having to travel away for work. Please remember we are not logged in 24/7 and have to comply with mundane activities such as going to work and earning a living. I'm sure as soon as he logs in again and sees the confirmation from GHDpro he would have announced the winner.
Yes, the contest did take a long, long time to finalise. There are many reasons or excuses, the forum crash certainly didn't help and having to get as many of the entries to be resubmitted was a slow job. After that, it was no easy feat to determine the winner since there were several extremely good entries and we have been discussing the merits and then had the difficult task of trying to decide which entry we would most like to see as our mascot.
Finally, we run and maintain AnimeSuki and the forum as a hobby, we do not live sleep, breath the forums. It's done for fun because we enjoy doing it. If we do not live up to your expectations then I'm sorry but that's the way it is. While I do know who the winning candidate was, I'm afraid that the results will have to wait for a little while as the timing of your post was most unfortunate and may delay the announcement again.
|2006-05-09, 11:29
|Link #26
♪♫ Maya Iincho ♩♬
|2006-05-09, 11:49
|Link #27
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
Don't be surprised if this thread is suddenly edited and some of the posts disappear as it will just be me trying to extract my foot from my mouth
I know from private conversation with NightWish that he has been extremely concerned about the delays and problems the mascot competition has run against.
|2006-05-09, 11:56
|Link #28
Kairin-chan's #1 Fan
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Canada
Yes you spend lots of time judging, but we also spent lots of time working on them. I wouldn't think it would be awfully much to ask that after the 2 weeks expired, to have a small update saying:
"We're sorry the contest results could take a few more weeks" or something to that extent. I realize you don't have to (and didn't) but it would atleast show us that you still cared about the contest. After no news/updates in over 2 months, people like me just give up hope of it ever finishing. And I think that was the reason I was upset.
|2006-05-09, 12:29
|Link #29
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
In hindsight a number of things could (and should) have been done differently. But then it's easy, in hindsight, to see the correct course of action.
I've now updated the AnimeSuki front page, while that's many, many weeks late at least it's now done. We will be making a formal announcement by the end of this week (Friday).
|2006-05-09, 17:04
|Link #30
Nothing More
Join Date: Mar 2003
Age: 39
I'm very sorry, to everyone who entered the contest, for the shocking length of time it has taken us to get to where we are now. In truth, as I said to the staff on Saturday, it has taken almost half a year -- that is unacceptably long and totally unfair to you guys, who contributed so much time and effort.
From forum problems to our personal lives there are many reasons behind why the process became so protracted, but I'm not going to waste time explaining them or using them as an excuse as that is pointless -- we could have been more organized... we should have been more organized.
It's insulting that it took this long and for that I can only apologise.
Now, to get to the point...
::clears throat:: -- I'm not very good at public speaking so bear with me...
We, the Staff at AnimeSuki, would like you all to warmly welcome the newest member of our team... She is a kind, gentle and beautiful elf girl... who goes by the name...
This cute, kind-and-gentle elf-girl is the creation of... none other than... Kiva128(!) ~ ~ I'm sure the irony of Kiva128 finally snapping (and posting how I'm sure a lot of you were feeling, being upset and all) only hours after we finally made the choice isn't lost on many of you... (Really I'm very sorry we put you through the wait....)
So many congratulations (and thanks) to him for that! To demonstrate our appreciation for the effort he put in (and for allowing us to stretch his patience to breaking point) he will receive our first prize of $150.
Ok, so now that is done... there are two others I need to mention. It wouldn't have taken us so long if the entries had not been so close and so very hard to choose from. Eight entries made this final choice so vary hard, they were submitted by (in the order they were submitted): anime-otaku, Sunbane, Dreamy Kid, runpsicat, pkumo, Koekepan, Loz and Paladinknight. Many thanks to you for some very interesting entries. While we loved all eight, two did a particularly good job of making it hard to not to announce Kairin sooner. These were first Sayuri the kitsune, Cosine, Sine & Ne the Daruma and an unnamed fox and second Yuyu (err, the human) and Kuro the cat. They were submitted by Paladinknight and Loz. In recognition of the hard time they gave us, they are awarded the second and third prizes respectively (both getting $75).
Finally I just need to say a last thank you to everyone who contributed. You've been more than patient with us. The entries were absolutely fantastic, heartfelt contributions to the site for which we are, and will always be, very grateful. Thank you.
Anyway, enough of me... please welcome Kairin and congratulate Kiva128!
P.S. We'll be looking for banners, site layouts, t-shirt, fan-art and other Kairin related ideas and creations from members soon (and I really hope we can get our act together such that when I say soon I actually mean soon). So please don't hesitate to post any you have here or in the fan creation forum
P.P.S Though I will get around to PMing you myself, please can the three winners PM me about how they want to receive their respective awards -- I often need a swift kick up the backside to remind me to do things ^_^;;
|2006-05-09, 20:33
|Link #31
Kairin-chan's #1 Fan
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Canada
Wow...I really don't know what to say to be honest. I've never won something like this before. Reviewing my previous posts after this makes me feel a bit like a jerk. But we all have our good days and our bad. So I do apologize for that.
All I can say is that I hope that people will be happy with the mascot, I certainly tried my best. However, I'm actually going to start working on a thank you picture of Kairin tomorrow to thank the mods, and GHDpro for picking my design. Thank you!
I would like to also congratulate the other winners, Paladinknight and Loz. You guys really did have some awesome entries.
Man I'm bad at these kind of things...
And thank you Kairin, I knew you could do it!
|2006-05-10, 01:09
|Link #32
Weapon of Mass Discussion
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, USA
We really had a hard time choosing from those top three who NightWish mentioned. There was also a top nine that was difficult to pare down as well. I'm glad that we can finally welcome Kairin to the forum. I am eager to see Kiva128's thank you pic of Kairin.
If anyone wants to submit their versions of Kairin, we'd be glad to see them. The more Kairin the merrier. Hopefully soon we'll be able to add Kairin to our front page.
|2006-05-10, 01:46
|Link #33
Mr. Prince
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Age: 35
My god I can't believe this contest is finally over... I thought it would drag on till the end of time itself.
But I would just like to say congrats to Kiva128 for his outstanding hard work creating Kairin for all of us to feast our eyes on from now on. She seriously looks like a character design from a high production show, which brings me to my next question... You wouldn't make your living off of drawing anime characters would you?
|2006-05-10, 16:08
|Link #35
Ero~Kairin! ^-^ Yeay!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: ~ Montreal
Age: 38
I was a bit uncertain.. but finaly I like it, it looks like a possible Nerine's oka-san if she'd ever had any. ^-^
"JOJO gives twenty kisses on Kairin's cheeks and buns and welcom her to the forum" ^^
BTW I'd like to see a sexy version of Kairin just to make sure she realy represents us well at suki suki.
|2006-05-10, 16:38
|Link #39
~chibi tenshi~
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Paris, France ~♪
Age: 36
To the Winner!
A big and warm welcome to Kairin!
She's our new baby *touched* and she will brighten up your days here at AnimeSuki very soon
Congratulations Kiva128! You did a wonderful job! I can't wait to see your next work!
Congratz to Paladinknight, Loz, and the six runners up as well, your submissions were brilliant too!
And thank you to all the participants!
|2006-05-10, 16:44
|Link #40
Ero~Kairin! ^-^ Yeay!
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: ~ Montreal
Age: 38
Last edited by JOJOS'STAR; 2006-05-10 at 18:49.
|Thread Tools


text:
Nothin' but Net: How does the coaching carousel go?
Philadelphia, PA – In the NFL, it's called "Black Monday."
The day after the regular season, unemployment lines grow throughout the country as head coaches are relieved of duty. Following this most recent season, eight head coaches in the NFL lost their jobs.
Don't expect anything remotely similar on Thursday, April 18.
There won't be a massive turnaround in the NBA coaching fraternity after this current season. Part of that is due to the fact that four coaches were either fired during the season, or left on their own.
Another reason there won't be much change is that few teams truly failed to live up to expectations. Injuries ravaged a pair of probable playoff contenders (Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers). But most teams finished where most pundits had them pegged.
Plus, the turnaround is such in the NBA that most teams' leaders are only in their second or third year at best.
Let's examine who may be calling their agents looking for opportunities in two weeks.
The Nets are 29-17 under Carlesimo's stewardship since Avery Johnson was canned. That record alone should be enough to get Carlesimo a multi-year contract extension, but the Nets aren't an ordinary situation.
Owner Mikhail Prokhorov wants a splash, at least that's been the common thinking. He's one of those obscenely wealthy guys who laughs while watching TV in his "money room."
The main goal is an NBA title, yes, but it's also to compete with the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden.
There were reports of a courtship of sorts with Phil Jackson, who appears to be more interested in his new toy, Twitter, than with coaching the Nets.
Yet, Brooklyn may take another run at the Zen Master, who ran out of fingers for his championship rings. Either Van Gundy brother, Jeff or Stan, would be a big enough name to satisfy Prokhorov's star crush, and both are great coaches.
Another name you'll hear some might be Kentucky's John Calipari. He's splashy all right, but had a dalliance with the NBA back in the late 1990s for the same Nets squad. He went 72-112 and was fired 20 games into his third season. Of course, since, Calipari has won a national title at Kentucky, but this is far- fetched.
Hunch here is that the Nets will talk to some big names. Best-case scenario is they land a Van Gundy, but otherwise, they'll probably go back to Carlesimo and say they wanted him all along.
His tenure has been bumpier than a motocross track. First, assistants Dan Majerle and Elston Turner jumped ship when neither was chosen as Alvin Gentry's replacement.
Since, the Suns are only 10-23 under Hunter and he's resorted to benching guys who he feels aren't playing hard. That's a bold move from an interim coach.
Lon Babby was just extended two years this week as the president of basketball operations and a few weeks ago, he spoke of leadership and his interim coach.
"But I think we're getting some of that from Lindsey Hunter," Babby told KTAR/Arizonasports in a radio interview. "We can talk about that at the appropriate time, but I do think we've made progress in some of that area."
If 10-23 is progress, then, kudos to Hunter on a job well done. He is trying to change the culture and takes effort and accountability seriously.
The problem is this roster. There isn't a single impact player there, save for maybe Goran Dragic and Marcin Gortat. What is the philosophy of this franchise? Why did Babby get two more years?
When there are so many questions, it's always been my belief that craziness continues.
Hunch here is, for no reasonable reason, expect Hunter to be back next season with a new contract.
Boylan took over the Bucks when Scott Skiles left. Skiles wasn't under contract for next season and thought it just best to leave on his own accord.
Boylan will make the playoffs with Milwaukee, although the Bucks may not have a winning record.
Nothing during his tenure, in which Boylan has gone 18-20, the Bucks haven't exactly improved. Factor in that Boylan and Brandon Jennings don't appear to be reading the same book, let alone be on the same page.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's name has been rumored for this post. That would be something - the tall guy from "Splash" coaching in the NBA.
Hunch here is Boylan is back to being an assistant somewhere next season.
Keith Smart has to wait out what happens with the Kings. It's unfair to speculate on his status since no one know what the team's status itself is.
Adelman is two wins shy of 1,000 in his career. At his worst, he is a top-10 coach in the NBA. He's won everywhere he's ever gone in his career, made trips to the NBA Finals and is just brilliant.
But this season has taken a heavy toll on Adelman.
On the court, All-NBA forward Kevin Love has played 18 games. Ricky Rubio has played 49, Nikola Pekovic is at 58, Andrei Kirilenko 56 and Brandon Roy, who the team brought out of retirement this offseason despite having the knee strength of Christmas tinsel, gutted out five appearances before shutting it down for ... bad knees.
The only Minnesota player to appear in every game this season is Luke Ridnour. He's a nice guard, but if he's the only one you can count on every night, you're in the weeds.
The biggest reason Adelman may walk away (and he's said he will contemplate his future in the offseason) is the health of his wife. He missed 11 games in January when his wife Mary Kate suffered seizures. Mary Kate Adelman's condition has improved, but, according to a USA Today piece on Wednesday, the cause of the seizures is still unknown.
"I'm just taking each day as it comes and will make a decision (about his future) somewhere down the road," Adelman told USA Today. "The biggest concern is to try and keep these guys going - and my wife, obviously."
Hunch here is Adelman comes back, barring any complications with his wife's health. When full, the Minnesota roster is talented enough to make the playoffs, although Pekovic and Kirilenko could walk.
Here's another gentleman who took the 2012-13 season hard.
A lot of smart people believe Collins was the driving force for the fateful Andrew Bynum offseason trade that yielded zero games played, but plenty of fascinating hair styles.
Make no mistake, if Collins leaves in the offseason, it will be of his own decision. The new Sixers ownership loves Collins more than ice cream and CEO Adam Aron has said Collins is no danger of losing his job.
But Collins goes full-bore. He doesn't know any other way. He lives and dies with every possession and this season has clearly wore on him. Collins lost his mind in a postgame presser about his team's effort against the Orlando Magic.
Collins likes Philadelphia, but there are other factors to worry if you're a Sixers fan who is pro-coach.
First, he is the best basketball analyst in the world and ESPN, TNT and NBA TV will get into a huge bidding war for his services, should they become available. Being a television guy keeps Collins in the sport and doesn't cause him to worry about his blood pressure.
Secondly, Collins has been a coach at three other spots (Chicago, Detroit and Washington). He's never lasted longer than three seasons in any of those spots. The 2012-13 season is Collins' third with the Sixers. If history is a barometer, Collins may not want back.
Hunch here is 50/50 at best. This season really has taken a toll on Collins, but he loves the area and feels loyalty to an organization that drafted him No. 1 overall. The slight lean is one more season.
This group is much harder to figure out. Let's assume anyone who makes the playoffs is safe. We'll throw Tyrone Corbin of the Utah Jazz and Mike D'Antoni of the Los Angeles Lakers in that group as well, although both would not look forward to a phone call from this writer if he was in charge.
Also, we will disqualify the three coaches who started this season - Mike Dunlap (Charlotte Bobcats), Jacque Vaughn (Orlando Magic) and Terry Stotts (Portland Trail Blazers). All have shown enough improvement that they warrant another season.
Randy Wittman's Washington Wizards have been sensational with John Wall in the lineup.
Dallas' Rick Carlisle didn't have one of the greatest players ever for half the season and is a top-five basketball mind with a compliment of talent.
Dwane Casey of the Toronto Raptors earned a full season with his new roster and should contend for a playoff spot next season.
Monty Williams of New Orleans is well-liked and will get a chance to grow with last season's No. 1 pick Anthony Davis.
That leaves just two.
Frank should be dreading a meeting on April 19. In two seasons in Detroit, Frank is 50-91 and this team is not devoid of talent. Almost every team in the league would fist-fight for Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond and Brandon Knight.
It's only his second season with the Pistons, but, including his start with the Nets before he got canned in 2009, he's 50-107. That's unacceptable.
Hunch here is Frank is back for one more season, but he's had two starts to a campaign of 0-8 or worse. Frank does that again and he's gone.
Scott is an accomplished coach. He's been to the NBA Finals with the Nets, won the Southwest with the New Orleans Hornets and got the unenviable job of pioneering the Cavs through the post-Lebron era.
It's been shaky. Scott is 62-156 in three seasons with the Cavaliers. All-Star guard Kyrie Irving has missed 23 games, Anderson Varejao 49 and Dion Waiters 17.
The problem has been the Cavs don't appear to be playing hard - at all.
"I'm very disappointed in the way we played," Scott said after the team's 10th straight loss on Wednesday. "We just didn't show any life. The energy, the effort wasn't there, for whatever reason."
Has he lost the team?
"I still don't feel that way," Scott replied.
He may be wrong.
Hunch here is, with one year left on his contract, Scott comes back, but has literally the shortest leash in the NBA next season. This is not a confident hunch.
- Mark Cuban is not drafting Brittney Griner. He's not doing it in the second round or whenever he thinks. It's not sexist to think a woman can not play against men in the NBA. Can women compete with men in basketball? Of course they can. Can they at the NBA level? No, not against the best basketball players in the world. If this were to happen, it diminishes Griner because it's just a stunt. This is just more ranting and pot-stirring from the best in the business at it.
- There are going to be some angry fan bases when the NBA owners decide the fate of the Kings. Sacramento or Seattle? Hard to speculate on anything about it since we don't know inside the minds of the owners.
- Movie moment - One of my favorite writers ever is Roger Ebert, the famous movie critic who is once again battling cancer. I urge you to take a gander at his reviews of "North," or "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo." Also, please admire this quote, "To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes."
- TV moment - "Arrested Development" returns on May 26. I am not a man of wealth or means. I've said for a while, the most important possession I'd ever leave to my son is the first three seasons of this show on DVD.


text:
Professionally I advertise myself as a "language expert," which is quite accurate (see www.language-expert.net ), and I get a wide range of contacts from attorneys and private citizens regarding anonymous letters, plagiarism, contract interpretation, copyright infringement, and other issues where money, reputation, or something else of value is at stake.
I also get questions about grammar and usage, which I answer gratis, just to shed a bit of linguistic insight on issues that usually cannot be resolved definitively because language is flexible and variable, and there just isn't one right answer.
But a few days ago, I got this, which is indeed in a class by itself:
"My name is _______and I am student at Texas Women's University in Denton, Texas. As a philosophy major, I am currently writing a research paper outlining the argument against the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel is a story told within the Christian bible (Genesis 11:1-9) that tells how all the languages in the world began to exist.
"Within the bible, the people of Babylon decided to build a tower to reach the heavens. This made god angry so he decided to scatter the tower workers all around the world and gave them each a different language to speak. And this is the very reason there are many different languages.
"Within my research paper I am required to provide a professional reference. I would truly appreciate some feedback as a linguistic expert on the validity of the Tower of Babel.
"Is the Tower of Babel possible?
"Is it likely?
"Is it impossible? (I am personally inclined to believe that it is impossible)
"WHY and WHAT makes this story possible, likely or impossible?
"In a nutshell, what is the best reasoning for the many different languages that have existed?"
"I am truly grateful for your feedback and it will go a long way in my research paper.
My reply:
Dear _____,
I suggest you read my book, "An Atheist Reads the Torah" -- it answers this as well as many other questions. Briefly, there is no archaeological or any other evidence for any of the events of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). The Tower of Babel is a complete fiction. As far as we know, there is no evidence that everyone in the world spoke one language. I find it remarkable that this is even a viable point of view in an academic institution.
Scientific investigation tells us that the world's 5,000 or so languages are related to other languages in the distant past, and we can describe the historical processes by which ancient "proto-languages" change and ultimately divide into separate language families and individual languages and dialects as people moved farther and farther from each other.
Language is perhaps 100,000 years old. There's disagreement over whether it originated once or many times. We can't go much beyond the historical written records. I think it originated many times because the world's languages are so different. It probably started with gestures, mixed with nouns. Verbs and grammatical relations came later.
The real point of the Babel story is subjugation and dependence: God says that if humans can build the tower, they will be able to do whatever they set out to do and nothing "will be beyond their reach." We learn early on how the Torah writers felt about human ambitions.
And who heard him say this? The text doesn't say that he said it to anybody in particular. If God supposedly wrote that passage, why does he refer to himself in the third person?
Indeed, God's method is successful, and he has a point: to this very day, language differences are the main source of cohesion within -- and the root of divisions between -- tribes and ethnic groups.
BTW, this story is not, properly speaking, in the "Christian Bible." The first 19 books are known as "the Hebrew Bible" or "the Tanakh" or "the Old Testament." Furthermore, all of Noah's descendants settle in Shinar before they begin the tower; only afterward is it called Babylon (Genesis 11:2 and 9).
I am really concerned about the quality and bias of your education.
Thanks for contacting me. I hope I have been helpful.
Humanists have long pondered the question of why religion, even though it is manifestly wrong and harmful to boot, manages, century after century, to survive and enslave most of the world's people.
Now comes one of the most astonishing answers I have encountered (OK, maybe I've been too sheltered): they teach in it college!
And they call it philosophy! What a disgusting perversion of a noble endeavor. In the search for an understanding of the mind, of life, of consciousness, knowledge, thought, beauty, morality, and everything else that makes us human, debating the truth of Bible passages has no place whatsoever.
The Middle Ages are gone, and good riddance. Except at Texas Women's University (and, no doubt, many other fine institutions).
Views: 382
Thanks for kind words. Linguistics used to confine itself to grammar, pronunciation, historical change, dialect variation, and meaning/lexicon, but looking at language out of conext reveals nothing about the peripheral phenomena that you note and that ultimately influence understanding.
Linguists then (borrowing from language philosophers) discovered speech act theory an pragmatics, "illocutionary force" (what I meant to say) and "perlocutionary force" (what you heard). This just scratches the surface.
As a speechwriter, I found out how limited my academic understanding of communcation really was, but over time I caught on to these other factors.
Alan, thanks for your essay.
I remember "A ha!" moments when, after I'd done a lot of public speaking, I studied how communication can fail. I explained it to myself as follows and your essay reminded me of it.
1. There is what people intend to say. (Call it A)
2. Their "screens" of ability to say it change A. (A becomes B)
3. Listeners' screens of ability to understand B changes it further. (B becomes C)
4. Listeners' ability to accept C changes it more. (C becomes D, which might have little similarity to A)
That was before neurology entered the picture.
I'm glad I'm not Chomsky's only critic.
To Alan, I read somewhere that kids are agnostic savages, or savage agnostics, until caregivers socialize them.
Let's see, where did I read it?
Of course, in the above line where I wrote it.
I was in middle school when another sister and another brother joined the family. Their savagery was rather mild, and until their dad put them in Catholic schools they neither affirmed or denied the existence of gods.
To Debra, I believe (and have read this somewhere) that kids are atheists (or at least non-deists) by inclination; religion is a cultural superimposiition.
Tom, This isn't the first time I've read "what's up with Chomsky?" comments.
He's definitely not a spellbinding speaker. And if you haven't had to plow through his writings...don't bother. Re your last comment: that's the first time I've heard that suggestion. When every public word you utter is noted and/or quoted, maybe you let the quality slip. It is a fact that Chomsky - unlike anyone else I know of -- has been spared, for DECADES -- the application/selection process that the rest of us have to go through when we want to deliver a paper or publish a book. He's just gotten a free ride, and when there's no check on quality, quality tends to slip.
As it turns out, Chomsky and I are both linguists, and he was starting to get famous just when I was coming up. Here's a post from my other blog: http://jewishatheist.us/?p=416
And, for what it's worth a comment I received: There is something about Chomsky that does not
add up. He is a bit like the Pope, everyone listens to him, and he says what is
expected, but does not really say much and what he does say is so general it's
hardly relevant to anything.
There is something incongruous in Chomsky's message, but it is always delivered
very intelligently
Interesting comment on Chomsky, especially your last speculation. It's important to note that (a) Chomsky is a self-appointed expert on everything but linguistics, and (b) unlike the rest of us, who have to submit articles and manuscripts for review, Chomsky got a free ride for DECADES. He was the most quoted intellectual in American because nobody would refuse to quote or publish him. His reputation snowballed even if it was hollow at the core.
His speaking style was never spellbinding (and thank your lucky stars you never had to plow through his writings), but when you're listened to and quoted uncritically for so long, the quality tends to slip. I'm fairly certain nothing "happened to" him. It's just that nobody would ever dare to question the Great One.
Re Noam Chomsky:
I saw his Manufactured Consent and I've heard him a few times.
I agree that he has good ideas, but he talks as if he is terminally bored with his own message.
It saddens me; I wonder if there's something he did to himself or if there's something his followers did to him.
I will respond in more detail to the many insights shared by fellow A/N contributors. For now, thanks, Joan, for the kind words...and to all who commented on the sea-change in education, let me say that I have witnesssed it: both my college/grad education and my 13 years as a professor were fortunately free of dogma, corporate pragmatism, teaching to the test, and political correctness. It's all happened within my adulthood.
SILVIA SAINT-CLAIRE, I am very happy you joined the conversation. We have so many mindbinders and cobwebs to cut through, it takes a lot of conversation, comparing and contrasting our experiences and learning new thing, to form a new paradigm.
I like your statement, "The kids who were my students went to college with critical thinking implanted in their brains; I made sure they did...the same with the kids who decided against college."
Thanks for your leads to "Noam Chomsky on Education".
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