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2011 Chevrolet Cruze
The new Chevrolet Cruze delivers almost everything we'd expect in a good compact sedan. It's the best small car GM has offered in North America in decades, by a substantial margin.
Launched as a 2011 model, the Cruze replaces the sturdy but boring Cobalt, and it's a great leap forward in technology, features and appeal. The Cruze was developed jointly by GM tech centers in Asia, Europe and the United States to battle in the most crowded part of the passenger-car market, with excellent new competitors like the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Forte, the best Volkswagen Jetta in years, and perennial leaders like the Honda Civic, Mazda 3, and Toyota Corolla. These are not necessarily competitors a newcomer wants, but the Cruze holds its own with all of them, and surpasses many in key areas.
Cruze is conservatively styled, to be sure, but in our opinion it's a well designed, handsome car. Its interior is one of the roomiest in its class, with acceptable space for four adults, and it's also one of the nicest. By the quality of materials, fit or function, it surpasses nearly all its competitors. Its trunk is also one of the largest in a compact sedan.
The 2011 Cruze is offered with a choice of two adequately powered engines: A 1.8-liter four-cylinder and 1.4-liter four-cylinder with a turbocharger. Both the manual and automatic transmissions have six speeds, which is rare in this class. The automatic offers some high-tech features that help conserve fuel. Across the line, the Cruze averages some of the best EPA mileage ratings among compacts. Yet if there's an area where Cruze falls below the benchmark, we might summarize it this way: Buyers seeking maximum acceleration in their compact sedan should probably consider one of those competitors.
In nearly every other respect, the Cruze runs near the head of the pack. Its steering is powered by electricity to save fuel, and its sharp, with decent feel. Ride quality is outstanding, yet the car is nimble, balanced and handles exceptionally well. The Chevrolet Cruze might be the smoothest, quietest compact offered in the United States.
For about $17,000 with destination charge, the base Cruze LS comes nicely equipped, with as much horsepower as the higher-trim models, air conditioning, six-speaker audio with standard XM satellite radio and power windows and locks. For $1,900 more, the Cruise LT adds the turbocharged engine, automatic transmission and a few more features, and it opens the car up to a wide range of options.
No matter which Cruze a buyer chooses, it comes with the most standard safety features in its class, including advanced electronic stability control, ABS, and a full compliment of 10 airbags. There are knee-protection airbags for front passengers, side-impact airbags for rear passengers, and head-protection curtains with rollover deployment. Every Cruze comes with GM's OnStar telematics system, including a six-month subscription for automatic accident response and other services.
The Cruze Eco delivers the best fuel economy. Its active aerodynamic features make it slipperier through the air, and it weighs more than 200 pounds less than other models. Its EPA rating of 42 mpg Highway is the highest for any conventionally powered car in this class, and higher than most subcompacts.
At the top of the range, the leather-lined, feature-laden Cruze LTZ offers technology that pushes the envelope for what many still think of as an economy car. It's available with a full-feature navigation system with 40-gigabyte hard drive, rear park assist, concierge services, premium Pioneer audio and remote starting.
A loaded LTZ will crack the $26,000 barrier, however, at which point the Cruze makes less sense for many buyers, unless they very specifically seek a smaller, fuel- efficient car that's loaded with the latest features. For that kind of money, the alternatives include larger, very nicely equipped midsize sedans such as the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata or Nissan Altima.
In final analysis, even import-inclined compact buyers should have a look at the Cruze. It has moved Chevrolet near the tip of the small car spear for the first time in memory.
Model Lineup
The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze is available in four model levels, with a choice of four-cylinder engines and either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic transmission.
The Cruze LS ($16,275) is powered by 1.8-liter inline four delivering 138 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque, with a standard 6-speed manual. The LS comes with plenty of features, including air conditioning, power windows, power door locks with remote keyless entry, and six-speaker audio with single CD, an auxiliary jack and XM satellite radio. The standard wheels are 16-inch steel. The 6-speed automatic is optional ($925).
The Cruze Eco (18,175) is optimized for fuel economy. It's powered by a smaller, 1.4-liter turbocharged engine that delivers the same 138 hp as the base engine, with an increase in torque to 148 lb-ft. It's lighter than other Cruze models, with aerodynamic aids that make in slipperier through the air, and low-rolling-resistance tires on 17-inch alloy wheels. The Eco is rated at 42 mpg highway with the manual transmission, and 37 mpg with the automatic.
The Cruise LT ($18,175) is powered by the same frugal turbocharged engine, with the automatic transmission standard. It also adds painted power side mirrors, and it can be equipped with a lot more options than the base LS. Foremost is the 2LT package ($2,500), which adds a six-way power driver seat, leather seating surfaces, heated seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, Bluetooth phone connectivity, steering-wheel mounted audio controls, remote vehicle start and 16-inch alloy wheels.
The Cruze LTZ ($21,975) is the high-zoot model, with the turbo engine and automatic transmission. It comes standard with the contents of the 2LT package and adds even more features, including automatic climate control, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, ultrasonic rear-parking assist and 18-inch alloy wheels with four-wheel disc brakes.
An RS Appearance package ($695) is available for the LT and LTZ, adding fog lamps, unique grille work, rocker moldings, a rear spoiler and a racier instrument package inside. The LT and LTZ can also be equipped with a navigation system ($1,995) that includes a 40-gigabyte hard drive, a 250-watt Pioneer audio system with CD changer and nine speakers ($445), and a power sunroof ($850). Other options include a Driver Convenience Package ($475) with remote start, Bluetooth and rear park assist, cruise control ($250) and tire-wheel packages that add rear disc brakes. (All New Car Test Drive prices are Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Prices, which do not include destination charge and may change at any time without notice.)
The Cruze comes standard with more safety features than any car in its class, starting with 10 airbags: front, side-impact and knee-protection airbags for front passengers, rear side-impact airbags and full cabin head-protection curtains with rollover deployment. GM's OnStar telematics are standard, with Automatic Crash Response and other services free for six months. Other standard safety features include Stabiltrack electronic stability control, anti-lock brakes (ABS), front seatbelt pretensioners, daytime running lights (DRLs) and the federally mandated tire-pressure monitor.
The Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan isn't likely to wow anyone with neck-craning looks. Nor will it inspire anything close to revulsion, or even distaste, in its beholders. Cruze styling is conservative, but it's also quite handsome and nicely proportioned.
And large, as compact cars go. Measuring 181.0 inches bumper-to-bumper, on a wheelbase of 105.7 inches, the Cruze is at least slightly larger car than nearly all of its competitors, including the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and the all-new 2012 Ford Focus. By wheelbase and width, the Cruze is less than two inches smaller than some midsize sedans, including the Ford Fusion.
Many of the Cruze's hidden design features have been adapted from larger, typically more expensive cars, intended to reduce the noise and vibration reaching those riding inside. There are nylon baffles in hollow portions of the steel body/frame structure, and sound-absorbing foam that expands in various cavities when the paint is baked on. The doors have triple sealing gaskets, with fiberglass liners that provide another barrier against water, airflow and noise, and they slam shut with a precise, satisfying THUNK.
In general, the Cruze is more angular than other recent Chevrolet sedans, including the popular Malibu. Its front end mimics the Volt plug-in sedan, no doubt deliberately, with a prominent Chevrolet Bowtie logo. The headlight housings are large, sweeping upward and around the front edges of the car.
The roofline arcs subtly from its steeply raked windshield through fast-sloping rear pillars, creating a generally sporty profile. Its wheels are pushed out to the corners of the car, with minimal overhang. No, this compact sedan doesn't break new ground or wow with its curves. But it's tidy and quite confidant looking, and the package generates a feeling of quality and solidity. Wheels range from 16-inch steel with plastic covers on the base LS to spoked 18-inch alloys with low-profile tires on the loaded LTZ.
The Cruze Eco is a slightly different beast, because it's designed to be Chevrolet's conventional-engine fuel economy leader. The differences start with 42 steps intended to trim weight, right down the size and location of welds in the body. As a result, the Eco tips the scales at 3,009 pounds, or 214 pounds less than the mid-level Cruze LT.
The Eco also adds a host of aerodynamic tweaks, including some adapted from the Volt plug-in. These start with active grille shutters that close at higher speeds, blocking much of the grille surface when the cooling demands of the engine allow it, and smoothing air flow over the front of the car. The Eco also sports a lower front air-dam extension, plastic panels that cover large portions of the underbody and a carefully crafted rear spoiler. It's finished with low-rolling-resistance tires on specially designed rims. That means a bit less braking performance or grip through the corners, but it also means less friction when the Eco is cruising along for better fuel economy.
Interior Features
The new Chevrolet Cruze sedan continues GM's steady trend toward world-class passenger space. Overall, we'd rank its interior among the very best in compact cars, particularly measured by finish, material quality and overall quiet operation. Space, too. There's a lot of it inside the Cruze, with ample dimensions in most directions. This compact delivers an excellent balance of quality, coziness and space to breathe.
We think the Cruze is at the top of the class for the look, fit and feel of the materials inside. This is a Chevrolet? The seams join with tighter tolerances than those in some cars a class or two above. The textiles and plastics are rich, appealing and nicely grained, and the metallic trim looks good. The fabric used for the door inserts matches that used on the seat cushions, and it flows from the doors across the bottom of the dash. It's unique, and visually inviting.
The optional leather upholstery is thick, yet supple, and stretched tightly over the seats. The headliner is form fit with a soft, sturdy knit material, and it's only the outer layer of five in the roof's insulation. About the only thing not up to snuff is some hard plastic at the bottom of the door pillars, and while no one will look at it much, it's stands out as sub-par because everything else is so nice.
The front-seat adjustments in the Cruze allow occupants to find the right spot quickly and easily. The optional power controls for the driver are just as easy to use, and the tilting seat bottom has more range, from steep angle to nearly flat, than one finds in some luxury cars. There's plenty of fore-aft travel for drivers well over six feet tall, with even more front headroom. If anything comes up short, it's width. Published figures rank Cruze at the top of the class in front hip room, but the center console is on the wide side. Larger drivers who keep their legs slightly splayed may find their outer thighs or knees rubbing on the dash or door panel. You can drive better with knees closer together, anyway.
The steering wheel is thick and grippy; with the optional leather, it feels great in the hands. The wheel tilts and telescopes in all models, though the redundant audio controls on its right spoke are available only on higher-trim Cruze variants. The cruise-control switches on the left spoke are the best in the business. There's an on/off master switch and a big cancel button, sandwiching a thumbwheel that flicks down to set or add speed, and up to resume or reduce speed.
The Cruze's gauges are big and crisp, illuminated with ice-blue LED lighting. With the RS appearance package, they're trimmed with chrome and covered with bezels that make them pop even more in darkness. The tachometer is located on the left and the speedometer on the right, with smaller fuel and temperature gauges in the middle. Underneath the smaller gauges, a digital display shows current gear, direction of travel, and a host of options for vehicle or travel information. It's easy to cycle through the choices with a toggle on the turn signal stalk, and just as easy to set preferences for automatic vehicle locking and the like. Again, it's impressive in a compact.
The center stack of switches looks great, though a bit complicated at first blush. In fact, it's rationally laid out and easy to learn. There are four large, primary knobs for volume, tuning, fan speed and temperature, each ringed with a nice rubber surround. They turn with a satisfying feel that conveys the amount of adjustment just by the amount of movement. Other switches are pushbuttons, with entertainment and information high, between the dash vents and just below a large display screen. Climate controls are at the bottom. There's a single, large pushbutton to cycle through all the various airflow-direction options.
GM's so-called favorite button is handy, even if it takes a bit of mental adjustment to shake preconceptions about conventional AM/FM presets. This button allows the driver to cycle through five pages of six preset stations. But rather than being organized by AM, FM or another frequency band, each page of favorites can store any station available. That means you can store an AM news or talk station in the same page as your favorite satellite TV channels and FM music stations, enabling quick switching among them. The local traffic feed from satellite is thrown in for good measure. Conventional thinkers can still set each page to AM, FM or satellite, if that feels better.
Storage space inside the Cruze is adequate, if not overwhelming. There's a handy covered bin in the dash above the center stack. It can keep a phone, wallet or remote stored out of sight, and it's lined with rubber to minimize sliding. The pockets at the bottom of the front door panels are decently sized, but the hard plastic generates an annoying sound when a CD case slides forward under braking. The glove box is fairly spacious, but the console box is fairly small, with enough room for an MP3 player when it's plugged into the port inside. There are two cupholders in the center console.
The rear seat isn't fancy, but it's roomy and impressively supportive. The cushions for outboard passengers are carved, countered and bolstered almost as much as the front seats in some inexpensive cars. The downside is that the third space in the middle is narrow and flat, and not well suited for anyone past age seven or eight. This is really a four-passenger car. The outside passengers, though, will find plenty of headroom and decent legroom, with enough space under the front seats to easily accommodate large feet.
There's a power point for rear passengers on the back of the console, but no air vents. Those in back will have to rely on the center dome light, because there are no reading lights, either. The fold-down center rear armrest stops exactly at the height of the armrests on the doors, so elbows can rest evenly. The armrest has decent cupholders for those in back, but storage space is limited to fist-sized bins at the bottom of the doors and map pockets on the front seatbacks.
The trunk offers plenty of space. With 15 cubic feet of volume, the Cruze trunk matches the best in class, with substantially more room than what's available in the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla (12.0 and 12.3 cubic feet, respectively). The opening is large, and the trunk lid parks straight up and well out of the way.
The rear seatbacks fold easily to expand truck space, but the bottom cushions are fixed, so the expanded surface is not entirely flat. The height of the pass-through space limits the size of objects that will slide through, and there are no tie-down points to easily secure something that might turn into a weighty projectile in a sudden stop. There are hooks for a cargo/grocery net just inside the trunk opening.
Driving Impressions
The Chevrolet Cruze is a product of joint engineering among GM tech centers around the world, and the co-operation shows in the way the Cruze performs. It isn't perfect, but the Cruze moves Chevrolet to the front of the small-car pack.
In many respects, particularly measured by interior comfort and overall refinement, the Cruze performs a class above the compact-sedan standard. We can't say that about its engine and transmission performance, however. Cruze's powertrain isn't glaringly weak, but it's not one of the highlights in its dynamics portfolio.
The Cruze is available with two four-cylinder engines, and both have most of the latest control, durability and maintenance-reducing features, including fully variable timing for both intake and exhaust valves. The base engine displaces 1.8 liters, producing 138 horsepower and 124 pound-feet of torque. The upgrade engine is actually smaller, at 1.4 liters, but it's equipped with a high-tech integrated turbocharger.
The turbo engine generates the same 138 hp. It does produce an additional 24 lb-ft of torque, but that in itself doesn't seem enough to offer a choice. So why the second engine? We're not sure either, but we can guess. The 1.4-liter four generates its power using a bit less fuel. It's one reason the Cruz Eco model is EPA rated at 28 mpg City, 42 Highway, with the manual transmission, and 26/37 mpg with the automatic. Those are the best EPA ratings for any compact with a conventional gasoline engine, and better than most subcompacts.
Both transmissions have six forward gears. That's rare in this class, and another contributor to Cruze's overall fuel economy. The 6-speed automatic is technically advanced for a conventional torque-converter automatic in this segment, with GM's ActiveSelect manual-shift feature and a control program that unobtrusively puts it in neutral when the car is idling, even when the gear selector is in Drive. That, too, helps save fuel.
Our test cars all had the upgrade (smaller) turbo engine, and overall it does an adequate job in a sedan of the Cruze's size. It's impressively smooth and reasonably quiet, even when it's working very hard, and at 75 mph hour on the freeway, it's only turning about 2800-2900 rpm in top gear. The power comes on fairly low in the rev range, and then evenly all the way to redline. You don't have to wait until it's screaming at 6000 rpm for it to demonstrate any gumption. We'd guess that maybe 80 percent of typical drivers will be satisfied with its performance in daily use.
The dissatisfaction comes for that percentage of drivers who more than occasionally like to accelerate full bore, or drive harder than normal commuter-grade travel, and not just because the Cruze is slower than most cars in this class. We'd estimated its 0-60 mph acceleration time in the high 8-second range, and for many drivers that will be just fine, thank you. Our complaint is more about how hard the engine is working in the process, and how you really need to keep it floored to get this car to go. It may also be that, because the Cruze is so well sorted in other respects, it could handle a lot more power.
The 6-speed manual transmission works fine, with a firm, smooth, shifter and gear ratios well suited to maximizing the limited power. The automatic, though, has a similar bi-polar character as the engine. It works great when you're going at a relaxed, fairly casual pace, but not so well when you really step on the gas.
As a full automatic, the transmission's shifts are positive and impeccably smooth. If you step on the gas just a bit to gain speed around a dawdler, it will shift down one gear smoothly, deliver a moderate bubble of acceleration, and then find top gear again as quickly as it can.
But if the road opens up through the countryside, with nice curves that mean slowing fairly hard and then speeding up again, the automatic is less co-operative. Perhaps to maximize fuel economy, Chevrolet engineers seem to have programmed it to always seek the highest gear mechanically possible. The Cruze automatic doesn't like to shift down more than one gear at a time, and it won't unless you floor that gas pedal. And once it does downshift, it's most concerned with getting back up into sixth gear as soon as it can. In such circumstances, the manual-shift feature is the preferred choice, and it works almost surprisingly well. The shifts are quite quick, but still smooth, and the transmission will hold the chosen gear at fairly high rpm.
One important way the Cruze surpasses much of its competition is in its tight, ultra-solid body/frame structure. The Cruze unibody has as much extra-high-strength steel in key locations as any car Chevy has built, according to engineers. It has earned the highest scores in government-mandated crash tests in Europe, and Chevy says it expects the same in the United States. More to the point, the solidly built body provides a solid foundation for a lot of good things that make Cruze pleasant to drive.
Interior comfort is one of them. Very little vibration finds its way into the Cruze cabin, and it's one of the quietest compacts we've driven, even with its little, hard-working engine. Moreover, the noise passengers do hear is the sort that tends to be less obtrusive, like the crack of tires on pavement seems. There is very little wind noise, and not much of the high-pitch mechanical or vibration buzz that can come across as white noise.
The solid body also contributes to excellent ride and handling. Even without a fully independent rear suspension, something that can make cars of this type jittery and prone to bounce in the rear, the Cruze's ride is nearly flawless. It absorbed mid-winter potholes with the aplomb of a luxury sedan, without a lot of bounce-rebound-bounce, or anything close to mushiness or float. In total, this compact leads the pack in ride quality, but it isn't sluggish.
It was stormy and cold through most of our time in the Cruze, and that isn't conducive to exploring a car's handling limits, but it's perfect for exploring all-season capability, and here the Cruze was stellar, even with its standard all-season tires. Its lithe, balanced quality helps the Cruze on slippery roads, because if the driver is reasonably smooth, there won't be any squats, dives or side-to-side body swaying that can shift weight, upset traction and make the car harder to manage, as if there were a giant bowling ball rolling around in its shell. The standard traction control takes car of modulating the gas pedal. The driver just steps on it, and the electronics allow the Cruze to accelerate as fast as it can accelerate, given the traction available. The electronic stability control helps the driver stay ahead of the game, and it rarely lets anything get to the point where the Cruze might spin or swap ends.
When the pavement dries and the road clears, the Cruze can be good fun to drive, though more so with the manual transmission. Its power-steering pump runs on the electrical system rather than by drawing its power directly from the engine, and it's reasonably well sorted. It requires almost no effort to turn at low speeds, but resistance builds somewhat as speeds increase. The steering is also fairly quick, to the point that a driver might have to correct and re-adjust the car's trajectory through a curve, because the wheel was initially turned too much.
Overall, we'd rank the Cruze as a fine handling car. The nicely controlled body motion that helps in sloppy conditions applies on warm, dry pavement as well, at much higher speeds. At a more urgent clip, the Cruze maintains the poise it exhibits in a blizzard, with nothing jerky or surprising in its reactions. And there is quite a bit of lateral grip in the upgrade, low-profile tires, so it holds the pavement nicely though a fast curve. No real complaints about the brakes either. The pedal can seem a bit grabby when first applied, but the driver gets the hang of things in short order. The anti-lock brake system (ABS) manages full-panic stops nicely, and smoother, steadier braking quickly becomes a breeze.
The Cruz Eco's outstanding mileage ratings will no doubt appeal to many compact drivers. Though we haven't had a chance to drive one, experience suggests that there will be at least a slight payback for the higher mileage. The Eco's so-called green tires will be harder, less sticky, than those on other models, and that could affect both ride and handling. The Eco may prove at least a bit less responsive than other Cruz models.
Perhaps more significantly, the Eco's weight-reducing measures could influence overall performance, and not from the safety perspective. Chevy engineers have trimmed weight from the Eco's body by using thinner steel blanks and fewer, smaller welds in strategic locations. They've probably trimmed some of the sound-insulating material, and all that could affect the Cruze's excellent structure and noise and vibration control. Shoppers are encouraged to drive both the Eco and other Cruze variants before buying.
The all-new 2011 Cruze has moved Chevrolet to the top of the ultra-competitive compact sedan segment. Measured by features, mileage and ride-handling balance, or interior noise, space and quality, the Cruze matches or beats the best. It falls off a bit in power or engine performance, and it gets pricey at the high end of the model range. The base Cruze LS or a moderately-equipped LT look quite reasonable, but an LTZ loaded with navigation and premium audio bleeds well into the territory of larger, well-equipped mid-size sedans like the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord, or Chevy's own Malibu.
J.P Vettraino filed this report from Detroit.
|Model Line Overview
|Model lineup:
|Chevrolet Cruze LS ($16,275); Cruze Eco ($18,175); LT ($18,175); LTZ ($21,975)
|138-hp 1.8-liter inline 4; 138-hp 1.4-liter turbocharged inline 4
|6-speed manual; 6-speed automatic
|Safety equipment (standard):
|front-impact airbags, front-passenger side-impact and knee-protection airbags, rear passenger side-impact airbags, full-cabin head-protection curtains with rollover deployment, front seatbelt pretensioners, electronic stability control with brake-actuated traction control, anti-lock brakes (ABS) with electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), tire-pressure monitor, OnStar crash reporting (with six-month subscription)
|Safety equipment (optional):
|reverse-sensing system
|Basic warranty:
|3 years/36,000 miles
|Assembled in:
|Lordstown, Ohio
|Specifications As Tested
|Model tested (MSPR):
|Chevrolet Cruze LT ($18,175)
|Standard equipment:
|air conditioning, manual front seats, AM/FM stereo with single CD, six speakers and XM satellite radio with three-month subscription, power windows and locks, tilt/telescope steering column, driver information center, remote keyless entry, variable intermittent wipers, two 12V power points, 60/40 split-folding rear seat, rear seat armrest with cupholders, body-colored power side mirrors, rear window defroster, 16-inch steel wheels
|Options as tested (MSPR):
|2LT Package ($2,500) includes six-way power driver seat, heated front seats, leather seating surfaces, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, steering wheel mounted audio controls, Bluetooth phone connectivity, remote vehicle start and 16-inch alloy wheels; 17-inc alloy wheels ($395) with rear disc brakes; compact spare tire ($100)
|Destination charge:
|Gas guzzler tax:
|Price as tested (MSPR):
|front-wheel drive
|1.4-liter liter dohc 16v turbocharged I4 with VVT
|Horsepower (lb.-ft @ rpm):
|138 @ 4900
|Torque (lb.-ft @ rpm):
|148 lb-ft @ 1500
|6-speed torque-converter automatic
|EPA fuel economy, city/hwy:
|24/36 mpg
|105.7 in.
|181.0/70.7/58.1 in.
|Track, f/r:
|60.7/61.3 in.
|Turning circle:
|33.7 ft.
|Seating Capacity:
|Head/hip/leg room, f:
|39.3/53.0/42.3 in.
|Head/hip/leg room, m:
|Head/hip/leg room, r:
|37.9/52.4/35.4 in.
|Cargo volume:
|15.0 cu. ft.
|Towing capacity:
|1000 Lbs.
|Suspension, f:
|independent, MacPherson strut, stabilizer bar
|Suspension, r:
|torsion beam axle, coil springs, stabilizer bar
|Ground clearance:
|5.0 in.
|Curb weigth:
|3223 lbs.
|Brakes, f/r:
|vented disc/disc with ABS
|Fuel capacity:
|15.6 gal.
|Unless otherwise indicated, specifications refer to test vehicle. All prices are manufacturer's suggested retail prices (MSPR) effective as of March 25, 2011.Prices do not include manufacturer's destination and delivery charges. N/A: Information not available or not applicable. Manufacturer Info Sources: 800-950-2438 - www.chevrolet.com


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Can't help wondering how come a new company like Switch that has to invest into new equipment and molds (even if they've skipped the R&D part by snitching their design from North) can stay afloat while selling their bar for 275$? (And make profit of that!) Meanwhile North's bar went up to 550$ with absolute ZERO invested into R&D and new equipment since what 2007? Can somebody from North justify that? And in real life, these two bars will most likely fall apart at about the same rate.
Let's take Cabrinha for example, who actually have done some designing and custom manufacturing for 2012/2013. Their bar still costs 500$ while being the most innovative on the market to date. How do North and SS and Naish and LF fit in by only changing colors and adding swivels?
Here's a reality check. An item costs as much as the donkey-customer is ready to pay for it. And there's a break-even point in price jacking-up where you sell less product at higher price and make more profit than if you were to sell for less but more. And don't forget that for every unit sold there's warranty which comes out of the manufacturer's pocket, so technically the less they sell - less aftersale hussle there is!!!
You didn't really think that things like Best's lifetime warranty simply comes out from some saint spirit did you? At the end there's always somebody paying for the goodies!
That being said, the really embarrassing part is that even in 2013, these idiots (Cabrinha, SS, LF, etc.) are forcing everybody into buying bars for 450-500$, that are not even adjustable in width!!! While North's has been since what? 2005? Want to justify the price with innovation? Well, how about actually doing some innovation to begin with???!!!

subset: commoncrawl


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Academic Optimism
Martinette V. Horner, Derrick D. Jordan, and Kathleen M. Brown
Academic optimism was developed in 2006 as a latent concept that provides insight into the improvement of student outcomes especially for those who, because of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and other demographics, have historically been labeled as underperforming. The three main components of academic optimism (academic emphasis, collective emphasis, and faculty trust) underscore the reality that the teachers, parents, and students all play a critical role in the education arena when it comes to ensuring that students fully grow and stretch to the fullest extent possible. High academic optimism in a school suggests that academic achievement is valued and supported; the faculty has the capacity to help students achieve; and students and parents can be trusted as partners of the school for student achievement. Each of these can be controlled by the actions and decisions of school leaders and faculty so that schools can overcome the effects of poverty on student achievement.
Accountabilities in Schools and School Systems
Bob Lingard, Sam Sellar, and Steven Lewis
This article surveys developments in educational accountabilities over the last three decades. In this time, accountability in schools and schooling systems across Anglo-American nations has undergone considerable change, including a move away from bureaucratic approaches that endorsed teacher professionalism. Educational accountabilities have evolved with the restructuring of the state through new public management and the emergence of network governance. Accountability can be understood in two senses: (1) being held to account; and (2) giving an account. Within the post-bureaucratic state, the former sense has become dominant in the work of schools, principals, and teachers, and has affected curriculum, pedagogy, and student learning. For instance, schooling systems in Anglo-American nations have introduced standardized testing to hold schools and teachers to account. Comparative performance data are now made publicly available through websites and the creation of league tables of school performance. These processes are central to the creation of markets in schooling, where comparative test data are deemed necessary to enable parental choice of schools and, in turn, to raise standards. This top-down, performative mode of accountability also moves the field of judgment away from teachers and the profession. There are now emergent attempts to reconstitute more democratic and educative modes of accountability, which are multilateral and multidirectional in character, and which seek to limit the negative effects of top-down data-driven accountability. These approaches reassert trust in the teaching profession and reconstitute parents and communities as democratic participants in schooling. We argue that accountability is a pharmakon that requires balancing of mechanisms for holding educators to account and opportunities for educators to give accounts of their work. The article reviews relevant literature to provide a brief history of accountability in schooling, with particular emphasis on Anglo-American contexts. Drawing on the work of Ranson, we examine four types of existing educational accountabilities before concluding with a discussion of three alternative approaches.
Esther Dominique Klein
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
Accountability has become one of the major keywords in education during the last two or three decades, and it is not being discussed without controversy. Accountability has always been deemed a necessity for schools to fulfill their purpose in society; however, different views on whether and to what extent schools can be regulated from the outside have led to dissimilar assumptions about who should be accountable to whom and by what means. In a globalized world and with the influence of powerful transnational actors, accountability systems have been converging in the past decades. At the same time, new accountability instruments have been woven into existing structures and processes that have been culturally, historically, and socio-politically preshaped. Accordingly, approaches towards educational accountability worldwide today seem to be similar and diverse at the same time. In this context, the question is how these accountability systems relate to the institutional conditions they are situated in, and how different actors coordinate the order in education within different types of accountability and governance systems. Finally, one can also discuss to what extent accountability policies affect power relations and normalize inequalities within society.
Accountability in Assessment Administration
Arsaythamby Veloo and Ruzlan Md-Ali
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
Educational assessment modes and practices will change in the 21st century due to the advancement of technology in education. Consequently, this creates high expectations among stakeholders who are directly involved with assessment administration as well as professional responsibilities in assessment administration. Accountability of assessment administration includes maintaining assessment security and integrity. Assessments must be aligned with learning outcomes and instruction. Assessment administration policies should be aligned with an institution's assessment policies. Hence, assessment administrators collaborate with the institutions to develop and unify assessment standards and practices toward the enhancement of accessing students' overall competence. Optimum performance and typical performance covers cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects.
For example, in Malaysia, Integrated Cumulative Grade Point Average has been introduced in assessing higher education students' holistic performance, an extension from the implementation of School-based Assessment in Malaysian schools beginning in the year 2011. Previous assessment practices that focused more on cognitive aspects only involved paper and pencil tests. Thus, there were not many issues pertaining to assessment administration. However, to overcome the challenges in the new direction of assessment in the 21st century, it is important to pay particular attention to the accountability of assessment administration. There is also a need to accommodate and modify assessment administration according to the needs of current assessment mode and practices. We cannot wholly depend on standardized procedures all the time, because the nature of assessment may differ according to students' ability, the types and venues of assessment, and national agendas.
Assessment administrators are accountable to ensure that honesty, integrity, due care, validity, reliability, and fairness are observed and maintained during the assessment. The administration of educational assessment generally involves three major phases, namely preassessment administration, assessment during administration, and postassessment administration. There are standardized documented rules and procedures that assessment administrators need to follow when administering educational assessment to ensure that standards of accountability are upheld.
Achievement Motivation in Education
Judith Meece and Charlotte Agger
Achievement motivation theories are used to understand gender discrepancies in motivation across various academic domains. Early on in the field of motivation research, researchers commonly used an attribution framework to study achievement-related outcomes among men and women. Self-efficacy theory and a revised expectancy-value theory of achievement-related choices dominate the current literature on gender differences and achievement motivation. Current trends in research on gender and academic motivation include the shifting and expanding of theoretical frameworks, a new focus on the motivation and achievement of male students, and the use of advanced methodologies and cross-national data to conduct comparative research on gender and patterns of motivation.
A Collaborative Process for Incorporating Universal Design for Learning and Evidence-Based Practice into Inclusive Teacher Education Programs
Spencer Salend and Catharine Whittaker
In light of the need to prepare reflective and effective teachers who can differentiate their instruction to support the learning of all students in inclusive classrooms, this article describes the collaborative process faculty have used to incorporate universal design for learning (UDL) and evidence-based practice (EBP) into an inclusive teacher education program's curriculum and practicum experiences. Initially, faculty mapped the curriculum by agreeing upon a common definition of UDL and EBP, reviewing the research to create EBP documentation charts, which were used to constructing self-assessment tools known as innovation configurations (IC). Faculty used the IC to identify and address the strengths and gaps within the program's courses and clinical experiences and align courses with online interactive instructional resources related to UDL and EBP. To bridge the gap between research and practice and guide educators in making evidence-informed decisions, faculty developed a 10-step practice-based evidence assessment and instructional model to collect and analyze classroom-based data about the efficacy, acceptability, and fidelity of one's instructional practices and use of UDL and EBP. Faculty revised and field-tested a lesson plan template that prompted educators to personalize their instruction and make it more explicit by addressing such factors as student diversity and collaboration, and employing UDL, EBP, instructional and assistive technology and formative and summative assessment. Faculty also redesigned the program's lesson observation form used to better evaluate preservice teachers working in inclusive classrooms and provide them with feedback related to their effective use of EBP, UDL, instructional and assistive technology, and assessment and classroom management strategies. The lesson observation form also was revised to make it more reflective of the program's curriculum reform efforts related to the use of UDL and EBP, and to align it with the national teacher education accreditation standards, national and statewide teacher evaluation, curriculum and teacher education certification standards.
A Critical Review of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics)
Laura Colucci-Gray, Pamela Burnard, Donald Gray, and Carolyn Cooke
"STEAM education," with its addition of "arts" to STEM subjects, is a complex and contested concept. On the one hand, STEAM builds upon the economic drivers that characterize STEM: an alignment of disciplinary areas that allegedly have the greatest impact on a developed country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On the other hand, the addition of the arts may point to the recovery of educational aims and purposes that exceed economic growth: for example, by embracing social inclusion, community participation, or sustainability agendas. Central to understanding the different educational opportunities offered by STEAM is the interrogation of the role—and status—of the arts in relation to STEM subjects. The term "art" or "arts" may refer, for example, to the arts as realms/domains of knowledge, such as the humanities and social science disciplines, or to different ways of knowing and experiencing the world enabled by specific art forms, practices, or even pedagogies. In the face of such variety and possibilities, STEAM is a portmanteau term, hosting approaches that originate from different reconfigurations or iterative reconfiguring of disciplinary relationships. A critical discussion of the term "STEAM" will thus require an analysis of published literature alongside a review and discussion of ongoing practices in multiple field(s), which are shaped by and respond to a variety of policy directions and cultural traditions. The outcome is a multilayered and textured account of the limitations and possibilities for and relational understandings of STEAM education.
Action Research as Continuous Professional Development in Southeast Asia
Sarimah binti Shaik-Abdullah, S. Kanageswari Suppiah Shanmugam, and Mohan Chinappan
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
The quality of education in any country rests on school communities as a whole. However, the real implementers of innovations and changes in curriculum are teachers. Teachers, as practitioners, are the ones most often held accountable for successes and failures in educating schoolchildren. The way to facilitate teachers in handling challenges and keeping up with curriculum renewals is through constant support in the form of continuous professional development (CPD) by means of action research. Action research as CPD has been viewed as a critical platform for advocating change, which is the outcome of teachers' ability and autonomy to lead in making informed decisions about their own practices. Given its usefulness, action research is found well established, vastly practiced, and widely published in the Western countries. This has raised the question of the spread of action research as CPD in the Southeast Asian region. Preliminary analysis reveals that in some Southeast Asian countries, such as Timor Leste, there is limited literature on action research, while in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, action research has been well documented. At the same time, there's an emerging trend in Southeast Asian countries to adopt different models of action research. In Malaysia, for instance, action research has been primarily classroom based, whereas in Indonesia, a critical and community-based approach to action research seems to be prevalent. This suggests that the kinds of action research conducted in the different Southeast Asian countries may reflect variations in cultural, economic, and geographic landscapes. Given the importance of action research to teacher practitioners and school leaders, and in providing an identity to the action research approaches conducted in Southeast Asia, the historical trail of action research presents a window to the nature of CPD concerns of each country, as well as the successes and challenges of conducting action research as CPD for sustained impact.
Action Research in Teacher Education
Thomas Ryan
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
Herein the term Action Research is addressed by reflecting upon two words, action and research, united within this century to create something quite useful and commonplace. The word research, which has a long and traceable evolution, has been linked to seeking and to action, which is certainly the opposite of inaction. Upon closer examination, it is the action that can be either covert or overt, since thinking can be an action. When used together Action Research presents an opportunity to seek, pursue, and track one's actions to arrive at a target. Yet how a person decides to seek provides context. Regardless of the path taken, Action Research involves certain steps, such as reflection, that are focused, strategic, and seeking within a social context to move forward.
Action Research is malleable, flexible, and therefore can be many things depending upon how the terms are demarcated. However, herein Action Research is both a strategy and orderly process that supports those who may seek to examine, to change, and/or to improve. Action Research is a commitment and an approach from within that provides a structure that can simplify and guide an inquiry. Action Research (AR) can meet the needs of the individual or a group as it supports self-inquiry and group-inquiry equally, while unfolding in a series of steps and phases. The action step may include either cognitive and/or psycho-motor acts; the reflection step includes efforts to look back and within, whereas the third step, revision, demands that an action researcher plan for their next step. This AR process may include additional steps; however, AR remains cyclical and recursive and at times piecemeal as steps may overlap, accelerate, and challenge the action researcher over time, since theory and practice can be quite disparate.
Active Listening, Music Education, and Society
Dan Mamlok
A common definition of listening distinguishes between hearing and listening. The basic distinction describes hearing as a passive action of perceiving sounds, whereas listening involves paying active attention to various layers and elements of what one is hearing. Active listening to music, featuring the discerning of sounds, musical structures, harmonies, and the interrelations between the sounds, is akin to contemplating complex ideas. Providing meaning for this nexus of relationships requires listeners to grapple with these complex musical nuances, listening to different layers of the melody and harmony and connecting them to cultural and historical aspects. Challenging students to grapple with the complex nuances of musical pieces, to listen to different layers of the melody and harmony, and to connect those elements to cultural and historical aspects will provide them the opportunity to reflect upon the social and cultural contexts in which they live. The concept of what it means to be active (or mindful) has been examined from various perspectives and theories and holds great potential in advancing individual growth and social sensitivity.
Addressing Dilemmas and Tensions in Inclusive Education
Brahm Norwich and George Koutsouris
Inclusive education has become a prominent international ideal and value in educational policies and practices. It is a seemingly simple concept about opportunities, equality, and solidarity that has wide global appeal. However, inclusion as applied to education connects with various social and political values that have been contested over many decades. One issue that underlies inclusion as a value is whether it represents a single coherent value or multiple values that can come into tension leading to dilemmas that need to be resolved. This issue is often overlooked in considerations about inclusive education but does affect various key issues about differentiation in the design of curricula and assessment, the location of provision, and how difference is identified and labeled and about participation in the social interaction between students who are different. This is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Adult Education, Community, and Learning for Democracy in Scotland
Jim Crowther, Aileen Ackland, Margaret Petrie, and David Wallace
Historically, the relationship between adult education and democracy has been one of mutual synergy with education providing the context for thoughtful reflection and democratic action. The social purpose of adult education was precisely in its contribution to making the world a more socially just and more democratic place. However, this relationship has been eroded over the years as adult education and democratic life have become increasingly distanced from each other. Can this be repaired? This is the central theme of this entry, which is explored through trends relating to adult education, community, and democracy, and articulated through the particular experiences of the Scottish context we are familiar with. This article argues that adult education can enrich democratic culture and practice and that in turn democratic issues and debates can energize and stimulate adult education.
While the Scottish lens is distinctive, our argument has a broader reference point, as the neoliberal economic forces and subjectivities shaping adult education are global and pervasive, busily percolating in, down and across all sectors and levels of education. Our claim is that adult education can still play a critical role in nurturing democratic life. Rather than abandon democracy, the task of education is to deepen it at all levels and ensure politics is educative. From this view, adult education for democracy can reinvigorate the culture and institutions of democracy and, in the process, help to reclaim the lodestone—or soul—of adult education. For some readers, this may seem a nebulous idea; however, for others it will mean that which animates what is worthwhile in adult education. A profession without a soul is a dead one.
This article is a collaborative effort that draws from different university institutions involved in the training and formation of community educators. Together these institutions represent a spectrum of the Scottish university sector involved in this work and bring to this analysis considerable experience. Although different interests and distinctive emphases are represented in the perspectives here, this entry focuses on common ideas and values. We start therefore by situating ourselves in terms of professional, political, ideological, and theoretical orientations.
Adult Education for African Victims Of Trafficking In Spain
Antonio Alfaro Fernández
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
Victims of trafficking, once they are released from their captors, need psychological and educational intervention to achieve their recovery and integration. For this, it is important to design and develop educational programs that foster language learning, professional training, and good habits of nutrition and higiene, and that provide alternatives for leisure and free time.
These education programs, designed for adults, should be initiated in the shelter houses where the victims are released. They are developed by multidisciplinary teams formed by professionals in education, psychology, nursing, and social work. The final objective is to provide competences to the people included in the program so that they can leave the shelters and be able to live autonomously and independently in the host society.
Alternative Education
Martin Mills and Glenda McGregor
Alternative schooling has a long history. However, defining alternative schooling is difficult because it necessitates an answer to the question: "alternative to what?" It suggests that there is an accepted schooling archetype from which to differentiate. However, just what that model might be is likely to vary over time and place. In one perspective, alternative schools challenge what Tyack and Tobin, in 1994, referred to as the traditional grammar of schooling as it pertains to conventional forms of schooling developed in Western societies since the Industrial Revolution. Alternative schools challenge the taken-for-granted grammar of schooling variously through their organization, governance structures, curriculum, pedagogy, type of students, and/or particular philosophy. Certain types of alternative schools, including democratic schools, developmental and holistic alternative schools (e.g., Montessori and Waldorf/Steiner), and flexi schools, might offer lessons to the educational mainstream on how to be more inclusive and socially just. However, there are also ways in which they can work against such principles.
Anarchy and Qualitative Methods
Abraham P. DeLeon
What is anarchist theory and practice? What does it mean when anarchists engage with qualitative research? Anarchism has a long-standing history within radical political action that has been enacted at particular historical times and spaces. The Spanish Civil War, Paris 1968, and the so-called Battle of Seattle in 1999 saw the potential of anarchism as both a mode of critique and way(s) in which to think about direct political action. However, little has been done within the critical qualitative research project to engage with the ideas and critiques that anarchism offers researchers to think about and inform their own work.
Resisting hierarchies and their arrangements, challenging domination and relationships of power, rethinking praxis and direct action in qualitative research, and envisioning a utopian social and political imagination have been just a few of the political and epistemological projects that anarchists have undertaken that have direct implications for qualitative researchers. In thinking about future potentials, it has become imperative that critical qualitative researchers engage with anarchist theory and its critiques to better inform its own assumptions when thinking about the roles that qualitative research plays in resisting and altering oppressive social, political, and economic conditions.
Applications of Cognitive Neuroscience in Educational Research
Bert De Smedt
The application of neuroscience to educational research remains an area of much debate. While some scholars have argued that such applications are not possible (and will never be possible), others have been more optimistic and suggest that these are possible, albeit under certain conditions, for example when one aims to understand very basic cognitive processes. Concrete examples of these applications are increasing in the emerging interdisciplinary field of mind, brain, and education or educational neuroscience, which posits itself at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and educational research. From a methodological point of view, cognitive neuroscience can be applied to (some types of) educational research, as it offers a toolbox to investigate specific types of educational research questions. Promising applications of cognitive neuroscience to educational research include comprehending the origins of atypical development, understanding the biological processes that play a role when learning school-relevant skills, predicting educational outcomes, generating predictions to be tested in educational research, and undertaking biological interventions. The challenges of applying cognitive neuroscience deal with ecological validity, the scope of a biological explanation, and the potential emergence of neuromyths.
Approaches to Handling Common Response Styles and Issues in Educational Surveys
Chester Chun Seng Kam and Xitao Fan
Survey has been a widely used data collection method for a variety of purposes in educational research. Although response styles have the potential to contaminate survey results, educational researchers often do little to control for such negative effects. Under discussion are five common response issues, their impact on survey data, and the methods that may be used to minimize the negative impact of these response issues on survey data. The five response issues in question are acquiescence (including disacquiescence), careless responding, extreme response, social desirability, and item-keying effect. Acquiescence (disacquiescence) refers to a respondent's general tendency to agree (or disagree) with an item regardless of its content. This response style can distort item and construct correlations, compromising the results of factor analytic and correlational findings. Careless responding refers to a respondent's tendency to pay insufficient attention to item content before responding, which can also lead to a biased estimation of relationships. Extreme response refers to the tendency of selecting extreme response options (e.g., strongly agree or strongly disagree) over middle options (e.g., neutral). Social desirability refers to a respondent's tendency to rate him- or herself in an overly positive light. Finally, item-keying effect refers to a respondent's differential responses to regular-keyed and reverse-keyed items. This effect often creates the illusion that items with opposite keying directions measure distinct constructs even when they may not.
A growing amount of research has been done on how to control for the negative impact of these response styles, although the research may be limited and uneven for different response issues. A variety of approaches and methods exist for handling these response issues in research practice. Different response issues may require considerations at different stages of research. For example, effective handling of acquiescence response may require steps in both survey construction (e.g., including a hidden measure of acquiescence) and survey data analytic treatment (partial correlation technique), while controlling for item-keying effect may require more sophisticated modeling techniques (e.g., multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis).
Area-based Responses to Educational Disadvantage
Kirstin Kerr and Alan Dyson
Countries across the world struggle to break the relationship between socio-economic disadvantage and educational outcomes. Even in otherwise affluent countries, children and young people from poor and marginalized families tend to do badly in education, and their lack of educational success makes it more likely that they will remain in poverty as adults. Moreover, socio-economic disadvantage and educational failure in these countries tend to be concentrated in particular places, such as the poor neighborhoods of large cities or of post-industrial towns. This has led policy-makers and practitioners in many administrations to favor area-based initiatives (ABIs), which target such places, as one set of responses to social and educational disadvantage. Some ABIs are limited to funding schools more generously in disadvantaged areas or giving them additional support and flexibilities. The more ambitious initiatives, however, seek to develop multistrand interventions to tackle both the educational and the social and economic problems of areas simultaneously.
The evaluation evidence suggests that these initiatives have so far met with limited success at best. This has led some critics to conclude that there is a fundamental contradiction in their use of purely local interventions to tackle problems that originate outside ABIs' target areas, in macro-level social and economic processes. However, it is possible to construct a convincing rationale for these initiatives by understanding the social ecologies that shape children's outcomes, and by formulating holistic interventions aimed at reducing the risks in those ecologies and enhancing children's resilience in the face of those risks. There is, moreover, evidence of a new generation of ABIs that has begun to emerge recently. These new ABIs are able to operate strategically and over the long-term, rather than being bound by the short-term nature of policy-making. These newer initiatives may offer a better prospect of tackling the link between social and educational disadvantage, even in unpromising economic circumstances, and even within the context of "politics as usual."
Art-Informed Pedagogies in the Preparation of Teachers
Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
There are several interrelated themes in arts-informed pedagogies in teacher preparation: the arts as tools to improve students' academic achievement; the arts for teachers' own professional identity and satisfaction (e.g., for teacher reflection, teacher retention, job satisfaction, and relationship building), and the arts for social change, justice, & education advocacy work. Creativity and agency have also received attention in arts-informed teacher education practice, encouraging "teacher as artist" metaphors as counterpoints for more prevalent orientations to teachers as those who treat and fix problems (like doctors or scientists). Comparing the act of lesson planning and instruction to that of the artist encourages teachers to see their tasks as creative, generative, surprising, and aesthetic. Finally, teacher education often focuses on ways in which the teacher can serve in the role of mentor-artist, coaching and guiding students' creative expressions instead of and rarely as a complement to the teachers' own creative endeavors. Across these themes, projects utilize aesthetic languages of the arts disciplines—visual art, theatre, music, dance, creative writing, and media arts—as meaning making tools toward particular academic, relational, and creative goals in teacher education. Arts-informed teacher education practices are reviewed to date, and key questions and concerns are considered regarding where, how, and why the arts are used, by whom, and to what end. Important to this review are extensions to the ways in which the arts have been used in other training fields such as nursing, police training, and social work. The extent to which the arts in professional development hold value is deeply connected to national arts value and will be compared to differences in other teacher education systems worldwide.
Natalie LeBlanc and Rita L. Irwin
Since its conception, a/r/tography has been described as an interdisciplinary, dynamic, and emergent practice, blending visual, narrative, performative, poetic, and other modes of inquiry with qualitative methodologies such as ethnography, auto-ethnography, autobiography, and participatory or educational action research. Although some a/r/tographers utilize traditional modes of data-gathering methods, such as interviews, transcripts, and field notes, not all practices of a/r/tography refer to the recording or collection of ideas as "data," and if they do, they are used in combination with, or in relation to, art-making, creative writing, or performance. As an arts-based methodology grounded in the physicality of making and creating, a/r/tography is situated outside traditional research structures. It is framed by a continual process of questioning where understandings are not predetermined and where artistic contexts, materials, and processes create transformative events, interactive spaces in which the reader/viewer/audience can co-create in meaning-making. In short, a/r/tography is an arts-based form of inquiry that disrupts standardized criteria of research while evoking and provoking alternate possibilities for understanding.


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Former boxing champ Mike Tyson fought back tears as he confessed he has been "lying to everybody" about his sobriety as he opened up about his alcoholism battle at a press conference on Friday.
The sporting icon told ESPN's "Friday Night Fights" he has been struggling with substance abuse, but admitted he hopes he is finally on the road to recovery.
He told reporters, "I'm a bad guy sometimes. I did a lot of bad things, and I want to be forgiven. So in order for me to be forgiven, I hope they can forgive me. I wanna change my life, I wanna live a different life now. I wanna live my sober life. I don't wanna die. I'm on the verge of dying, because I'm a vicious alcoholic."
Tyson then became emotional as he announced, "I haven't drank or took drugs (sic) in six days, and for me that's a miracle. I've been lying to everybody else that think I was sober, but I'm not. This is my sixth day. I'm never gonna use again."
The 47 year old was the most famous boxer on the planet by the late 1980s when he became undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, but his achievements were overshadowed by his addictions, his abusive marriage to actress Robin Givens and his rape conviction in the 1990s.
He previously credited his appearances in "The Hangover" comedy franchise with helping him turn his life around and kick his personal demons.


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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "broke pavement" at The People's Garden during a ceremony on the grounds of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) commemorating the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who established the USDA. The Secretary declared the stretch of pavement permanently closed and returned back to green.
"It is essential for the federal government to lead the way in enhancing and conserving our land and water resources," said Vilsack. "President Obama has expressed his commitment to responsible stewardship of our land, water and other natural resources, and one way of restoring the land to its natural condition is what we are doing here today - "breaking pavement" for The People's Garden."
At the ceremony, Secretary Vilsack announced the goal of creating a community garden at each USDA facility worldwide. The USDA community garden project will include a wide variety of garden activities including Embassy window boxes, tree planting, and field office plots. The gardens will be designed to promote "going green" concepts, including landscape and building design to retain water and reduce runoff; roof gardens for energy efficiency; utilizing native plantings and using sound conservation practices.
First lady Michelle Obama also gave her plug for renewable energy projects and the community garden program during her visit to the USDA headquarters.
"I'm a big believer in community gardens, both because of their beauty and for their access to providing fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across this nation and the world," Obama said. "So to help kick this effort off, I brought a little gift to get this garden going." The First Lady's gift in honor of the occasion was a magnolia tree seedling from the White House, which will be planted by USDA's main building facing the National Mall.
Kevin FryDirector, PR and Communications email@example.com JR Taylor PR Coordinator email@example.com


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NEGATIVE RESULTS FOR CELIAC DISEASE! Yay!!!
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Coexisting with dark places.
4 months ago
My Beautiful Diabetic's name is Maddie. She is smart, talented, full of life, and hilarious, all rolled up into one precious little body. Diabetes has tried to get the best of her, but she doesn't let it. She does the activities that she wants to do, plays the sports that she wants to play, and she doesn't let diabetes tell her what she can or can't do. God has made her this way, and we know that He has it under control. So this is our story.....
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March 04, 2008
LOS ANGELES - UCLA Anderson School of Management announced today the launch of its highly anticipated Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) program, designed to serve students seeking advanced business education with a focus on quantitative finance. The one year program provides a depth of study in finance that is more quantitatively oriented than in traditional MBA programs, while also emphasizing the development of key leadership skills.
Visit the Master of Financial Engineering Program Website
"Organizations today operate in global financial markets that are experiencing explosive changes and fluctuations," says Judy D. Olian, dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management. "Consequently, the level of financial and technical savvy required by firms has accelerated the demand for superbly-trained financial engineers."
While MFE programs are available at other universities, UCLA Anderson is one of the few elite business schools to offer the MFE degree. Taught by a world-renowned finance faculty, the UCLA Anderson MFE program affords an innovative curriculum that combines theory, analytics and application in a variety of areas, ranging from venture capital and risk management, to more technical operations such as securities design and quantitative trading. UCLA Anderson is also home to the Center for Finance and Investment (CFI), a research and education center that focuses on investment management, corporate finance and financial engineering. The Center will provide valuable learning opportunities to MFE students as well as unique collaborative opportunities with industry partners.
"Our MFE program will provide students with a world-class academic experience that integrates a technically challenging curriculum with practical know-how," says Dr. Robert Mark, executive director of the UCLA Anderson MFE Program. "Program graduates will not only be thoroughly equipped to face the complex demands of the market, but will also be well-trained to manage and lead in organizations."
Situated in Los Angeles, a global center for investment management, the UCLA Anderson MFE program enjoys strong industry ties offering students many opportunities to interact with leaders in the local and international finance community. The MFE program places a strong emphasis on students' career preparation and carefully monitors the development of each student throughout his or her year of study. UCLA Anderson MFE students also have access to a wide-reaching network of alumni, faculty, and professionals in the global finance community to help support students' internship and job search goals.
About UCLA Anderson School of Management
UCLA Anderson School of Management, established in 1935, is regarded among the very best business schools in the world. UCLA Anderson faculty are ranked #1 in "Intellectual Capital" by BusinessWeek and are renowned for their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking. Furthermore, the finance faculty is ranked #1 in research publications in the four leading peer-reviewed journals by the Financial Management Association. Each year, UCLA Anderson provides management education to more than 1,600 students enrolled in MBA, Executive MBA, Fully-Employed MBA and doctoral programs, and to more than 2,000 professional managers through executive education programs. Combining highly selective admissions, varied and innovative learning programs, and a world-wide network of 35,000 alumni, UCLA Anderson develops and prepares global leaders.


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The White House dislikes tea party groups so much it directed the Internal Revenue Service to harass them. That isn't true, but the rhetoric already being spun could lead one to believe as much.
"The admission by the Obama administration that the Internal Revenue Service targeted political opponents echoes some of the most shameful abuses of government power in 20th century American history," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
It doesn't seem to matter that the White House doesn't run the IRS, or that it was an appointee of President George W. Bush in charge of the organization during the time period in question, or even that President Barack Obama found out about the situation when the IRS was apologizing for it last Friday. At a press conference Monday, the president was deploring the practice as well.
"If, in fact, IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that had been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outrageous and there's no place for it," Obama said.
So it would appear there will be bipartisan condemnation of any action taken by the IRS that unfairly singled out tea party groups. As there should be, since bureaucratic decisions are supposed to be free of political influence. Government services, even those provided by an agency most people dislike such as the IRS, are supposed to be fairly applied.
Indeed, if tea party groups were singled out for treatment nobody else received, then heads need to roll. Attempts to silence political points of view has no place in America -- and should not be tolerated.
And yet, it's too early to tell precisely what took place.
What we do know is that the U.S. Supreme Court opened the floodgates for politically active groups and their corresponding spending with its decision in Citizens United. The number of groups classifying themselves as "social welfare" groups under section 501(c)4 of the federal tax code ballooned. The classification is critical, as it allows tax-exempt status.
And that's where the IRS entered the picture. Officials there have to ensure the social groups do not have political activity as their primary activity. If that line is crossed, the tax-exempt status disappears.
The IRS singled out about 300 groups that had applied for the status. Roughly 75 of them were tea party groups. That doesn't strike us as out of line, given the relatively recent emergence of the movement. The brouhaha has been created by the way those groups were identified. Workers in a Cincinnati office searched for names that had "tea party" or "patriot" in them. Once higher-ups learned of the practice, it was quickly stopped. None of the groups were denied their tax-exempt status, although not all of them have received a ruling yet and some have withdrawn their application.
On its face, it appears the shortcut taken to identify some of the groups was inappropriate but didn't rise to the level of harassment. We'll see if that changes as more testimony is offered at the plethora of hearings Congress is sure to hold. But before lawmakers and the public leap to conclusions, all the facts need to come forth. Assumptions made based on what we know so far might end up making us look ridiculous -- regardless of political stripe.
Editorial by Patrick Lowry


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Decision : 28 COM 14B.50
Nominations of Cultural Properties to the World Heritage List (The Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen)
The World Heritage Committee,
1. Inscribes The Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen, Germany, on the World Heritage List on the basis of cultural criteria (iii), (iv) and (vi):
Criterion (iii): The Bremen Town Hall and Roland bear an exceptional testimony to the civic autonomy and sovereignty, as these developed in the Holy Roman Empire.
Criterion (iv): The Bremen Town Hall and Roland is an outstanding ensemble representing civic autonomy and market freedom. The town hall represents the medieval Saalgeschossbau-type of hall construction, as well as being an outstanding example of the so-called Weser Renaissance in Northern Germany. The Bremen Roland is the most representative and one of the oldest of Roland
statues erected as a symbol of market rights and freedom.
Criterion (vi): The ensemble of the town hall and Roland of Bremen with its symbolism is directly associated with the development of the ideas of civic autonomy and market freedom in the Holy Roman Empire. The Bremen Roland
is referred to a historical figure, paladin of Charlemagne, who became the source for the French 'chanson de geste' and other medieval and Renaissance epic poetry.
2. Recommends that the State Party consider linking the property with similar World Heritage properties in a possible serial renomination.
DocumentsDecisions Report
Context of DecisionWHC-04/28.COM/14B Add
WHC-04/28.COM/14B Rev
WHC-04/28.COM/INF.14A Add


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Erin Fabris
|Birth Date:
|Los Gatos, Calif.
|High School:
|Los Gatos HS
High School
In 2008, Fabris took fourth place at the Central Coast Section Finals in the 1600m. She ran 5:02 and missed qualifying for the State Meet by one spot...Named MVP of the Los Gatos track team in 2008...A member of the school record-holding four-mile relay team...Holds personal bests of 18:51 on the Woodward Park course, and 18:30 at Crystal Springs.
Played the violin for ten years, from second grade until her senior year of high school...Is a vegetarian...Loves musicals and was involved in musical theater until high school.
Collegiate Career Bests
6k-21:49.90 (UC Riverside Open 9/17/11)


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3pd Inc was founded in 2011, and is located at 9380 Ashland Rd in Gonzales.


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It's Not You, Android - It's Your Apps
Oct 23, 2012 2:06 PM PT
A substantial number of apps available from Google Play had serious flaws in their Secure Sockets Layer implementations and thus were vulnerable to hack attacks, found researchers at the Leibniz University of Hannover and Philipps University of Marburg.
The team downloaded 13,500 popular free apps to study their use of the SSL or Transport Layer Security protocols, with a particular focus on the apps' vulnerabilities against Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks due to the inadequate or incorrect use of SSL.
The findings were grim.
There were 1,074 apps containing SSL-specific code that were potentially vulnerable to MITM attacks. In addition, 41 of the 100 apps selected for manual audit were vulnerable to MITM attacks due to various forms of SSL misuse. From those 41 apps, the researchers were able to capture credentials for American Express, Diners Club, Paypal, bank accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live ID, Box, WordPress, remote control servers, arbitrary email accounts, and IBM Sametime.
The cumulative install base of the apps that were vulnerable to MITM attacks was between 39.5 and 185 million users.
Google declined to comment for this story.
Bad Apps
The problem in this case isn't Android itself, but poorly written applications for it.
However, this is not a problem unique to Android, Chet Wisniewski, senior security advisor at SophosLabs, told LinuxInsider. There are likely similar problems with applications for iOS, BlackBerry and other smartphone platforms as well.
"For SSL/TLS to work properly, every component must be used the way it is designed," he said. "The flaws pointed out in this research result from application developers turning off or ignoring one part of the TLS specification. It turns out this is quite easy to do as an Android developer, and Google does not have a human review process for every application like Apple does for its App Store."
There was a similar mishandling of information with Apple apps earlier this year.
"Whether it is done intentionally or accidentally," Wisniewski noted, "it is the responsibility of the app developer in the end."
No Oversight
Android as a platform is viewed as an inherently less secure than iOS because it is an open platform, but there are other issues as well -- some of which are intensified by the weak SSL issue.
For starters, Android app stores have little to no oversight, Lamar Bailey, director of security operations for nCircle, pointed out.
"Absolutely anyone can write an app and put it in an Android app store," he told LinuxInsider. "A lot of these apps are written by people with no security knowledge in their spare time."
The recent SSL and TLS bugs illustrate this issue, Bailey continued. "The developers did a poor job implementing a tried-and-true secure communications method -- they probably reused bad code they picked up somewhere on the Internet."
Untrusted Sources
Nearly all Android devices provide the user with the option to install applications from "untrusted" sources, noted Dirk Sugurdson, director of engineering at Rapid7 Mobilisafe.
"By default, Android devices will restrict the installation of mobile applications that aren't published on the Google Market," he told LinuxInsider, "but by simply checking a box in the device settings, the user is able to override this default. Once this box is unchecked, it opens up the possibility of emails, SMS, and websites to be a delivery mechanism for unsafe apps."
Apple, on the other hand, provides no such capability, Sugurdson pointed out. It allows users to install applications only from the iTunes App Store.
No Objective 3rd Party
Another issue for Android users is that there is no reliable way to assess the security of the app, nCircle's Bailey said.
"What we really need is an objective third party that rates the security of popular apps after a code review and security testing," he suggested. "This would provide valuable information for Android app shoppers and help change the mindset of application developers."
For now, Bailey said, Android users should assume that any app they download could be flawed.