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YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) — An elite crew of firefighters trained to battle the nation's fiercest wildfires was overtaken by an out-of-control blaze in
It was the most firefighters killed battling a wildfire in the
The lightning-sparked fire, which spread to at least 2,000 acres amid triple-digit temperatures, also destroyed 200 homes and sent hundreds fleeing from Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix. Residents huddled in shelters and bars, watching their homes burn on TV as flames lit up the night sky in the forest above the town.
The disaster Sunday afternoon all but wiped out the 20-member Hotshot fire crew based in nearby
"We grieve for the family. We grieve for the department. We grieve for the city," Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said at a news conference Sunday evening. "We're devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet."
The National Fire Protection Association website lists the last wildland fire to kill more firefighters as the 1933
Most people had evacuated from the town, and no injuries or other deaths were reported.
Hotshot crews go through specialized training and are often deployed soon after a fire breaks out. Sometimes they hike for miles into the wilderness with chain saws and backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection between people and fires. They remove brush, trees and anything that might burn in the direction of homes and cities. This crew had worked other wildfires in recent weeks in
As a last-ditch effort at survival, Hotshot crew members are trained to dig into the ground and cover themselves with the tent-like shelter made of fire-resistant material, Fraijo said. The hope in that desperate situation is that the fire will burn over them and they will survive.
"It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst conditions," Fraijo said.
Nineteen fire shelters were deployed, and some of the firefighters were found inside them, while others were outside the shelters, Mike Reichling, Arizona State Forestry Division spokesman, told the
In 1994, the Storm King Fire near
President Barack Obama called the 19 firefighters heroes and said in a statement that the federal government was assisting state and local officials.
"This is as dark a day as I can remember," Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement. "It may be days or longer before an investigation reveals how this tragedy occurred, but the essence we already know in our hearts: fighting fires is dangerous work."
Brewer said she would travel to the area on Monday.
As the blaze spread, people started fleeing, including Chuck Overmyer and his wife, Ninabill. They were helping friends leave when the blaze switched directions and moved toward his property. They loaded up what belongings they could, including three dogs and a 1930 model hot rod on a trailer.
As he looked out his rear view mirror he could see embers on the roof of his garage.
"We knew it was gone," he said.
He later gathered at the Arrowhead Bar and Grill in nearby Congress along with locals and watched on TV as he saw the fire destroy his house.
Two hundred firefighters were working on the fire Sunday, and several hundred more were expected to arrive Monday.
The fire has forced the closure of parts of state Route 89. Fire crews had no containment late Sunday.
The Red Cross has opened two shelters in the area — at


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July 22, 2013
Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest at Museum of Glass
Wsu Master Gardeners of Pierce County at Master Gardener of Pierce County
The Shape of Things by Neil Labute at Dukesbay Theater
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Based on a famous banned Russian novel written by Vladimir Voinovic in 1969, a satire about the predicament caused by a Red Army soldier assigned to guard an enemy plane just prior to Russia's entrance into World War II.
Rated No Rating .
Visit the official site
Produced by:
Directed by: Jir Menzel
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Running time: 1hr 46min
Opens: Jan 01, 1994

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Wide World of Sports
Intermediate40 videos10 units
- The Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games
- Just AmazingJust Amazing
- InspirationalInspirational
- CommercialsCommercials
- BasketballBasketball
- Athletes Speak UpAthletes Speak Up
- Talking About SportsTalking About Sports
- LegendsLegends
- Sports AdviceSports Advice
- Go For It!Go For It!
- Start
A Swimmer Makes History
About this Video
The Olympic swimmer is congratulated for winning more gold medals than anybody ever.
Source: Visa
Key Learning Points
- citing accomplishments
- offering congratulations
Dad and Son Finish the Race
About this Video
An injured athlete finishes a race with the help of his father.
Source: Visa
Key Learning Points
- enumerating ordinal numbers
- using negative contractions
"I'm Gonna Be One Proud British Guy"
About this Video
Britain's greatest Olympian shares his thoughts on British sports and on London's hosting the 2012 Olympics.
Source: See Britain
Key Learning Points
- expressing expectations
- explaining historical events
Training Ahead of London's Olympics
About this Video
AJapanese Olympic wrestler shares her thoughts on why she turned into someone who doesn't lose.
Source: ITN SportsNews
Key Learning Points
- recalling past events
- describing personalities
Quiz Words from These Videos
About this QuizQuiz yourself on 20 words and phrases from this unit.
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat and the human drama of athletic competition. This is EnglishCentral's Wide World of Sports.
- The Olympic Games
- Just Amazing
- Legends
- Sports Advice
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Skating Fun #1908
Barbie® and Skipper® dolls had a skating date at the rink with Ken® doll! Of course, Skipper® doll wanted to look nice so she found an outfit to match her big sister's Icebreaker #0942. A white turtleneck sweater was attached to red tights. This bodysuit was topped by a red velvet skating skirt with calico lining and suspenders. A white furry bonnet with red pom, calico lining and ties, a furry muff with calico lining and white skates with silver plastic blades completed the set.
All images and descriptions courtesy of Collector Books, publisher of "Barbie Fashion: Volume 1" and "Barbie Fashion: Volume 2" by Sarah Sink Eames
Production doll may vary from the photo shown above. Mattel reserves the right to modify the fashion/fabrics, sculpt, hair color/style, and accessories. Doll cannot stand alone as shown.


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Because here, drinking = thinking.
- OMSI AFTER DARK (above): Grown-up geeks mob the museum for a night of boozy science and kid-free fun.
- HISTORY PUB MONDAY: Local experts lead lively humanities lessons between pints of McMenamins ale.
- PAINT AND PROST WORKSHOP: Art School Studio students sip Northwest beer and wine and hone their craft.
- SCIENCE PUB PORTLAND: Beer halls put the PhD in pub with talks on robotics, geology, and oceanography.
- THINK AND DRINK: Oregon Humanities hosts this happy-hour conversation series, combining deep discussions with deeply discounted drinks.
Because you can get there from here.
Fourteen American airports fly nonstop to both Europe and Asia year-round. Portland International is the smallest. Delta's routes to Amsterdam's Schiphol and Tokyo Narita pump an estimated $215 million into the region's businesses. Beyond money, the flights put us on the world map: Schiphol connects Portland to Africa; Narita opens up China and Southeast Asia.
Because small is the new big.
We're a haven for VIPs looking to trade in Big-City success for a unique brand of careerism. A sampling of Stumptowners who braved the 21st-century Oregon Trail:
- Steve Gaynor, former game designer at California's major AAA gaming company 2K Marin, returned to Portland to launch indie game studio the Fullbright Company—and its critically acclaimed debut game, Gone Home.
- Rick Gencarelli left a culinary career in New York City and Burlington, Vermont, to open a food cart called Lardo, which has become a local sandwich empire with three brick-and-mortar locations.
- Rodney Hicks, who made his Broadway debut as a part of the original cast of Rent, came to town for Portland Center Stage's Oklahoma! and never left. He returns to PCS's stage this spring to play the lead role in Othello.
- Scone whisperer Kim Boyce, former pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Beverly Hills, relocated to open shoebox-size Bakeshop on NE Sandy Boulevard.
- Carrie Welch, once vice president of public relations at the Food Network, traded meetings with Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray to wait tables at Wildwood, launch local PR company Little Green Pickle, and co-found Feast Portland.
Because sometimes, you can't even pick a reason.
How easy and fun it would be to write about oceans of clean water falling profligately from the sky, in a world where clean water and wars over it will be the story of this century; or to write about shaking hands with Ken Kesey and Barry Lopez and Ursula K. Le Guin in the streets of this city, the three greatest writers we ever had; but why don't I say something real and blunt instead?
I love the shaggy moist grace of people here. I love the insistence on creativity. I love the general lack of class-snottiness and status-brandishing. I love that money matters but it doesn't rule the roost. I love that mostly people are friendly except about parking. I love that spiritual search beats religious arrogance here. I love that a mayor once exposed his personal sculpture to a statue.
I hate that we need an active, energetic food bank, and I love that it collected 44 million pounds of food to share last year. I love that when the sun finally comes out in July people emerge from their caves moaning and steaming and singing songs of awe. I love that who your parents were is not as important here as who you are. I love that a river runs through us and I hate that it's a foul sewer.
I love that we don't care much about what outsiders think of us because finally we grew up enough to care only about being a better us. I love that the city bird looks like a grim blue skinny dinosaur with wings and a bad toupee.
Brian Doyle edits the University of Portland's magazine. His novel The Plover appeared in April.
...And all the other stuff that makes us Portland:
North American Organic Brewers Festival // Hidden staircases in Goose Hollow // The Springwater Corridor Sellwood's Stars Antique Mall // Sunday Parkways // Pier Park disc golf course // Portland Winterhawks // Cherry blossom season // Forest Park's Wildwood Trail // The St. Johns Bridge // Alley 33 fashion show //Summer berries! Winter mushrooms // Microbrews in movie theaters // The Timbers Army // Hiking to Pittock Mansion // The Hillsdale farmers market // Pendleton blankets // Open skate at Oaks Park // The Writer's Room at Multnomah County Library // Sunset MAX commutes over the Steel Bridge // Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade // Snow at the Japanese Gardens // OBT Exposed // Old-growth trees within city limits // Oregon Zoo train... Did we miss your favorite thing about Portland? Tell us in the comments below!


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She makes gingers look less
and seem more
and seem more
NXT is the best show out there !
NXT is the best show out there !
We all judge others even if it isn't our place to judge, but supposedly at the end we are all judged by one!!!
Wrestling, women and money who could ask for more???
visit the home of The Return Of The Official Greatest Heel Column Ever
Right to Un-censor!


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Student journalists at Kent State University interviewed Mid-American Conference schools asking for an athletic department budget and breakdown of tuition and fees, according to Kent University. They posed the question, "Why aren't universities providing line-item charges so students and parents can see where the money is going?"
After collaborative research, the students across MAC schools are paying millions of dollars to fund athletics and chances are they're not aware of such charges to their tuition bill. Based on the athletic budgets from schools that were willing to comply, they could total the percent of the budget from student fees. They also took the budgets and recorded the amount paid by students to the athletic department per credit. Of all the MAC schools interviewed, only the University of Buffalo displays athletic fees as a line-item on tuition bills.
Colorful pie charts and graphics are used strategically to attract the readers eyes and educate students with a visual image. Computer programs are used to create a visual picture in the confusing lists of numbers. A video produced by the students highlighted the procedure and conflicts with the investigation. The students also used the Internet to search contact information for the schools involved.


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Lacerte Family Children's Zoo
The Lacerte Family Children's Zoo isn't just for the young, but also for the young at heart.
With a stream for splashing, ponies for riding, and birds for feeding, you could spend hours exploring the Lacerte Family Children's Zoo. The children's zoo features educational, interactive, and entertaining exhibits for toddlers to pre-teens. Its goal is to help children learn about the diversity of life on Earth, the importance of respecting animals and the environment, and the need to conserve nature for future generations. Since opening in 2000, the children's zoo has received numerous awards and has served as a model for other children's zoos.
Components of the children's zoo include:
- The Wander – an intriguing entryway with a bubbling fountain called Raccoon Springs, where children can dip their hands
- The Farm – opportunities for children to ride ponies, climb aboard a wooden play horse, pet baby doll sheep, miniature goats, and donkeys, and interact with pot-bellied pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and other farm animals
- Travis & Zach's Birds Landing – an unique, interactive aviary, providing guests with the opportunity to feed worms and seed sticks to almost two dozen species of hand-raised birds
- The Hillcrest Foundation Nature Exchange – providing a unique swap shop for children where they can earn points to trade for other wild treasures
- The JCPenney Discovery House and A.H. Belo Discovery Yard – a replica of a familiar home and yard with discovery opportunities about animals living in our urban environment complete with opportunities to pet snakes, turtles, rats, and other creatures
- The Stream – resembling a creek with water running through rock boulders


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Dairy Farmers Cling to the Land They Love | Holding On
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Slide Show: Vermont Dairy Farm
The annual farm-equipment auction at The Pines' barn in Barton, Vermont, was hopping. Maybe it was the weather that had brought the crowds, for although it was only mid-April, the day was more appropriate to early June. The air pulsed with a soft breeze, warm enough that bottles of Mountain Dew outnumbered coffee cups at least two to one. In northern Vermont, the grass was already greening up nicely, and the consensus was that the cows would be turned out to pasture a week or two earlier than usual. If I had to guess, I'd say there were 250 people gathered at The Pines–mostly farmers, but also a few
others drawn to the rugged utilitarian aesthetic of the machinery. I could be off by 50 or 60 in either direction, but no matter the precise number, it felt like a crowd. The auction hadn't started, so folks mostly wandered along the rows of implements and tractors, or stood chatting in small groups.
Pickup trucks rolled slowly down the gravel road and turned into the field to park next to other pickups. Many towed equipment trailers–a silent hope that on this day, a deal would be struck. Six elderly attendees sat in a circle around the circumference of a big tractor tire that lay on its side.
There was no dress code but the one that was unspoken and self-enforced: clean-but-frayed flannel shirts tucked into freshly washed work pants, topping steel-toed work boots. Often the toe leather was worn away, exposing a shiny bit of metal, almost jewel-like in the sun. Ball caps were all but ubiquitous, advertising tractor brands or equipment dealers or feed suppliers. The older farmers walked in the determined, shoulders-forward way of those who have spent nearly a lifetime traveling from one task to another, moving slowly but surely into the knowledge that those tasks formed a line stretching farther than the eye could see or the day could accommodate. The younger farmers moved in a way that suggested that they would someday move like the older farmers.
People greeted one another in a languorous, low-key manner that revealed few specifics but nonetheless offered a view of character and the enduring qualities upon which character is built: humor, persistence, self-effacement.
"Hi Tommy. How ya' doin'?"
"Not bad."
"Hanging in there, eh?"
"Yuh. Ain't movin' very fast."
"How you doin'?"
"Not too bad."
"They let you out, eh?"
"Nice day, ain't it?"
"Not bad. I seen worse."
"Better'n last week, anyhow."
"Suppose so."
I walked slowly through the crowd, eavesdropping a bit, but mostly just absorbing what came my way. The auctioneer, Reginald "Reg" Lussier, began his patter, and for a time I simply stood, all but hypnotized by the rapid-fire rhythm of his craft and the swirl of bodies around me as folks pressed in to get a view of the action. I smelled cigarette smoke, French fries, grass, and the sharp, vinegary scent of sun-hot metal, and I felt as though I were in the midst of something ritualistic, almost ceremonial, in nature.
Some of this, I knew, was because I'd learned just days before that the number of working dairy farms in Vermont had recently dropped to 1,017. This means that since recordkeeping began in 1947, the state has lost 10,189 farms. In other words, in a little more than half a century, we've shed 90 percent of our dairy farms.
So I couldn't help but wonder whether I was witnessing the coming together of a dying breed, one of the last gasps of a way of life that once defined the surrounding landscape. What will the Pines auction look like in 10 years? I wondered. And then: Will there even be a Pines auction in 10 years?
Please Note: This information was accurate at the time of publication. When planning a trip, please confirm details by directly contacting any company or establishment you intend to visit.


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HAVE YOUR SAY: Rise in dog mess complaints
Last updated at 20:24, Thursday, 01 March 2012
More than 300 complaints have been made to Allerdale council about dog mess in the past 14 months.
Figures revealed by the council show that 209 complaints were registered in 2011, with 93 so far this year, compared with 67 for the same period last year.
Over the same time 19 fixed penalty notices were handed out to people failing to clean up after dogs.
One of those led to a court conviction and there was one case of a person being repeatedly fined for dog fouling.
The figures were released after Deer Orchard Football Club in Cockermouth and Frostoms Football Club in Workington revealed that dog fouling was posing a threat to matches.
Workington and Maryport are among the worst hit towns for dog fouling, a council spokesman said. Keswick is the least affected.
Pavements and grass verges are the worst affected areas in winter, with open spaces taking the hit in summer.
The spokesman added that the number of complaints tended to drop significantly as mornings became lighter.
As well as handing out fines, the council aims to educate people about dog fouling and encourage them to clean up after pets through schools and campaigns at a combined cost of about £31,500 a year.
It also hands out about 750,000 free poop scoop bags a year, costing just over £5,000.
Dog mess is cleaned up by Focsa under the council's street cleaning contract.
Since June, Allerdale's 23 police community support officers have been able to issue fixed penalty notices and since January the council's five street scene officers have also been given enforcement powers, enabling them to support the town's environmental wardens.
The move followed a drop in the number of environmental wardens, from four to two in recent years.
Councillor Michael Heaslip, executive member responsible for street scene, parks and open spaces, said: "Dog fouling isn't the most glamorous of topics but it is a genuine issue which angers many of us.
"The problem is irresponsible owners who don't clear up after their dog."
As the council is forced to decide which services to cut to save money, Coun Heaslip urged the public to do their bit by scooping the poop.
Dog fouling can be reported online at www.allerdale. gov.uk/dogfouling or by calling 01900 702800.
First published at 19:23, Thursday, 01 March 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk
Have your say
A COPY OF MY LATEST LETTER TO THE COUNCIL.I appreciatte that you have channeled resources into this problem, but to date i am afraid i have seen no difference from when i first visited Marport in October 2010.
My only assumption is that your FOSCA team are in need of a re briefing. It is impossible that they are carrying out there unenviable duties if the problem still exists in such proportions. I'm not sure how often they are sweeping the areas i am refering too, but it can only be once a week if that which clearly isn't enough by any stretch of the imagination.
As for the bins, i am refering to bins in the parking areas in the dunes. Even if there is one near a dune, i don't recall any signage. I don't believe you can have one without the other. On the prom i recall seeing two signs at knee height. Thats no good. There has to be blanket straight to the point signs that are visible. Otherwise we are wasting time and money.
I have no plans to return to Maryport due to this, so a meeting is improbable. I have in writing pointed out the areas i encountered. I did this 18 months ago. I have since added one more, on the right of way that goes along the railway track on the Allerdale Way. Small narrow alley that is vile. No bins, no signs, nothing. Same near the "tourist attraction" at the Fort path that leads down to the prom. In the Times and Star it states the council has recieved 300 compliants. That tells me you need to take the hint that your strategy IS NOT WORKING.
In the past i have written a very positive review of the camp site in Maryport. To date over 6500 motorhome users have read it. I think the Council should forfill it's obligation and tackle this problem once and for all instead of employing half hearted, just ticking boxes measures. Statistics don't inform that the problem has gone. Clean Streets Do.
Anyone who believes dog fouling is excepable is clearly un aware of how dangerous it is. It's lethal.
For one it makes children Blind. Thats BLIND !!!! not for a week a month or a year, but for the rest of there lives. And why, because selfish irresponsible dog owners haven't got one ounce of decency or care for others in them. Add to this, the same stuff makes Livestock mis carry there young also means that it isn't ok to do it on farmland.
I've just spent a week in Maryport and the place is covered in the stuff, it's the worst town in the country i have been too with such a problem. The streets, the promanade, the cycle path near the fort. And worst at the start of The Allerdale Way, the path out of town that runs beside the railway track is minging with dog mess. At least over 20 piles. Anyone walking into Maryport from Cockermouth, thats what will greet them as they come to your town. It really is shocking.
I wrote to the council over a year ago suggesting proper bins and signs to educate the un educated. It would seem they are not interested.
I even walked down from Skinburness, everytime you reach a car park in the dunes, more dog excrement. No bins, nothing. The place stinks. And i take no pleasure in saying that.
View all 20 comments on this article


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Bush-like plants supply large crop of creamy yellow-skinned fruits. GARDEN HINTS: Fruits are best when 8 to 9" long. Cultivate or mulch to control weeds. Fertilize when fruits form to increase yield.
Sun: Full Sun
Sowing Method: Direct Sow
Days to Maturity: 50 days
Height: 24-30 inches
Spread: 18 inches
Thinning: 18 inches
We also suggest these gardening products and ideas.
If you're planning to a vegetable garden, the best place to plant may not be in the ground. It may be above ground.
Planting ID Tags 1:01See how easy it is to mark your rows and plants using actual seed packets.
What is this?)


text:
The following is an archive of a post made to our
'vox-tech mailing list'
by one of its subscribers.
I wanted to be able to set my domain search path to ucdavis.edu and
type http://my/ for my.ucdavis.edu or http://sisweb/ for
sisweb.ucdavis.edu, and Omsoft's proxy wouldn't let me. (I actually
wanted to just type "my", and my web browsers will add on the http://
stuff for me)
I installed Squid on my computer last night, becuase another piece of
software I wanted required it, and I was able to take advantage of it
to solve that problem.
I added to /etc/squid.conf
redirect_program /usr/local/bin/squidrewrite
redirect_rewrites_host_header on
and in /usr/local/bin/squidrewrite, I put:
#inspired by the Squid 1.1 release notes
while (<>) {
s@http://([^./]*)/@http://\1.ucdavis.edu/@ unless /http...localhost/;
The result works decently well (This still won't handle things like
http://wwwcsif.cs/). Now I just have to set all my web
browsers to use that proxy.
I run all my own servers because I trust nobody.
On that note, does anybody know of a free replacement for nntpcache
that they've gotten to work? I tried newscache but couldn't make it
I usually have a GPG digital signature included as an attachment.
See http://www.gnupg.org/ for info about these digital signatures.
My key was last signed 10/14/2003. If you use GPG *please* see me about
signing the key. ***** My computer can't give you viruses by email. ***
Description: Digital signature
Hosting provided by:
Sunset Systems
Sunset Systems offers preconfigured Linux
systems, remote system administration and
custom software development.
LUGOD: Linux Users' Group of Davis
PO Box 2082, Davis, CA 95617
Contact Us
LUGOD is a 501(c)7 non-profit organization
based in Davis, California
and serving the Sacramento area.
"Linux" is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.


text:
Today's commitment from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to end deforestation is a major breakthrough in efforts to save Indonesia's rainforests.
APP, one of the world's largest producers of paper and packaging, has published a new 'Forest Conservation Policy' which, if implemented, could spell the end of its long and controversial history of rainforest destruction.
85 - 96 of 1383 results.
Multimedia hub


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EDUC 584 Clinical Experience I (1)
An extensive, on-site study of the nature of schools including culture, politics and services. An examination of teaching through formal observation, data collection and analysis. An introduction to the teaching role including interviews with key school personnel, observation and some participation of one-on-one and small group instruction of students.


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text:
- Taylor Kendal
- Denver, CO
- United States
Teaching with Primary Sources
This conversation is closed.
How do we reform education?
I recently witnessed a TEDx event in Colorado and heard Ramona Pierson discuss her philosophy on education - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5aHL2qd_08.
She believes there's an equation (ok, actually an algorithm) that can be used to prescribe a unique education path for every student. This idea comes in the wake of a near nationwide adoption of the Common Core Standards. Where do the resources in the United States currently need to be focused to assure positive progress in education?
Don Gilmore
Sep 1 2011: Resurrect Socrates. Teach them how to think, not what to think. Teach search, not memory. Teach them how to filter the crap, not how to eat it. Nurture the rational mind, not irrational beliefs. Argue every side of every question. Empower them with the ability and the desire to be responsible for a better future. How? Probably requires a personal omnipresent tutor in the form of an AI, in addition to plenty of personal attention from a human mentor.
- +9
Sep 7 2011: I definitely agree with you Don, the Socratic method is actually being advocated in alternative schools and it should not be long before mainstream schools pick it up.Sep 8 2011: Don...this is the most powerful response I've seen in this entire thread! The brevity and use of contradictory dualism is unmatched. If you're not already, you need to be absorbing the SGU podcast. Here's the website, but I usually just grab it from iTunes - http://www.theskepticsguide.org. In my opinion, skepticism is one of the most powerful tools, and the reform I imagine is only possible when critical thinking and skepticism is embraced by teachers and taught from day one!Sep 2 2011: Part of the problem isn't just reforming the system itself, but helping the students and their families to reform themselves. How do we get students to want to learn? How do we get families to take an active role in their child's education?
There are some of students who want to learn, who take an active role in their own education and understand the possibilities it gives to their futures. Yet it seems there are nearly twice as many students who don't want to learn, don't want to do the work, don't care and will do whatever they can to distract their classmates and drag them down, too.
Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any answers? Positive or negative reinforcement doesn't seem to work. Rewards give only temporary results.
Ramona also says we should be giving kids more personalized education:
but will students do this? The same students who have no interest in doing homework, reading the chapter, listening to lecture, taking notes, participating in labs, watching movies, or attending school for more than the social aspect?
Sep 7 2011: Oh, you described my crazy batch at my school perfectly. Those are exactly the type of questions we ought to ask. How do we get such students to get interested in life? Is the present education system doing that? Anything, everything ought to be tested. Because these are lives we are talking about, people who are going to be future fathers and mothers, which means entire generations.Sep 8 2011: Andrea, you are so right! We need to change the mindset at home. Parents need to be involved and excited about learning, and that excitement will flow to their children!
Sep 8 2011: To Rosemary and Arshia,
It's the same thing that I've experienced, too. I really feel that it is a top-down problem, where;
if politicians and the media could stop using education as their hot-button topic for elections and attention,
if the general public could stop seeing educators and the "system" as part of the problem but a part of the solution,
if the parents could change their listening of teachers and school administration,
then students would change their listening and behavior in the classroom and in life.
Not all teachers are bad, but we go discarding the entire school's worth for the sake of possibly weeding out one. However the re-hire process is the same as it was when they were originally hired, except with a review of their past classroom grades. What results is we don't know what teachers are able to connect clearly and with proper purpose to their students, and we don't know why those teachers got distinctly higher or lower grades than their peers. Administrators are forced to rehire teachers based on impossible or unrealistic criterion and we never really weed out the 'bad' teachers, just the ones who don't hand out A's.
Is that really what the world wants? A generation of kids who had everything handed to them, with no way of measuring themselves for personal improvement?
Sep 10 2011: It's like with any profession; there are good and bad. However, because taxpayer money pays for teachers'salaries, the general public jumps on the bash-all-teachers bandwagon. This is especially true in New Jersey. Being a NJ elementary classroom teacher, I work diligently everyday trying to create meaningful and interesting lessons, all the while dealing with preparing students for standardized tests, constantly changing legislation, complaining parents who want their children to get As, but don't want them to work for those As, children who do not care to learn, and administrators who haven't stepped foot in a classroom for a long time.Sep 13 2011: Rosemary, I would recommend you rent "The Cartel' a movie adaptation of NJ schools. for a classroom of 20, over $300,000 is spent. The teacher, as you implied, receives average 55,000 (I think that's right.) Anyway, your salary is miniscule vs the amount available. Money for 'education' often end up in the pockets of 'suits' who mill around behind the scenes and when a topic gets to a "hearing,' its already too late to change anything.
I say bottom up solutions best where possible and our schools today keep going the wrong direction; top down.Sep 8 2011: Andrea,
Thanks for posting that follow-up video from Ramona. It's always about making that final jump to action. Anyone can preach and sound like they have the answer, but until it's seen from a ground level, such as the home, then it's hard to believe the change will ever come.
clay blasdel
Sep 17 2011: We watch TED because it's interesting. Make education interesting and students will watch. Schools fail because most of it is boring. It's not the material that's boring, it's the presentation.
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OMG - Is he saying that education must merge with that other E-word.......entertainment?
Sep 17 2011: to a very large extent I agree. I do beleve tailored delivery is the key.Sep 18 2011: I think learning itself should be an entertainment.Sep 26 2011: Absolutely, as an educator and curriculum developer I can't agree more! We call it "engaging", and it is an attainable art for every teacher -however old.
But give teachers a little slack from home too: turn off the TV and select the videogames children play, both are reducing student's attention span to near zero. No amount of entertainment can get through otherwise...Sep 26 2011: i get your point but school isn't disneyland. there are some things that kids need to be able to do in order to be able to handle themselves when they become adults and enter society. many of those things aren't really all that fascinating... no doubt you haven't watched every ted talk and haven't found them all interesting?Sep 27 2011: You, sir, are completely correct. We students find the drudgery of school to be incredibly tedious and boring, with little relevance to our personal interests.
I am a 17 year old senior in high school currently, and have a real love/hate relationship with my education. I attend an alternative school called Steller Secondary School, which is structured much more like a college than any other high school in my state, as far as I know. Students are allowed to individually select each and every one of their classes, save for the handful of required courses interspersed throughout one's time at the school. The school's philosophy is unique in that it stresses the importance of individual responsibility and responsible freedom (we are not forced to go to class, per say, though we are responsible for any information we miss by choosing not to attend class). The emphasis on these aspects of learning make Steller a great environment for breeding creative thinkers, along with the Socratic seminar method practiced in most, if not all, classes.
With all this creative thinking going on, many intellectual discussions arise on a daily basis, and education is a popular topic in these group discussions. Most of Steller's student body agrees that a blanket education paradigm is not at all the way to go in today's society; there are far too many different fields of interest for one structure to work for every single student, and this becomes even more of a problem when one considers the different skill levels of students. If one student excels in math but is horrible at writing, why should that student have to dedicate equal time to both subjects when they could be spending twice the amount of time focusing on expanding their math expertise? Granted, the dual focus would create a more well-rounded student, but is that really what is necessary in today's society, where there are enough people for ten excellent writers to make up for the one person's lack of skill in that field?
Sep 28 2011: So well said, Ethan! Thanks for your insight, and for letting us know there is some place out there where education is really happening. We have been touching on creativity in education and the Socratic method in another conversation here, and your comments -and how well you put them!, make this one educator excited for the future! Will look into Steller now :-)
Back to your points, I don't see where the hate is in your love-hate relationship with the school. It seems it is handling the education dilemma pretty well...Sep 27 2011: Sorry, I ran out of room in the last reply.
Nearly every student I've talked to in this small school of 300 or so students believes that it is not what's necessary. They, like many others, believe that a more individualized approach to education is necessary, one that doesn't set one standard for the entire student body, where students are judged by their scores on a tedious test full of busywork administered each October. It's ridiculous to think this system will help to produce creative-thinking individuals to come up with solutions to problems our country faces and will face in coming years. Just go to your local high school and look around at the apathy.
I believe that students should not be required to take all four of the core classes once they get into high school. By this time in their education, students usually have a general idea of what career path they plan on taking, whether it's to become a civil engineer or the next greatest slam poet. Any classes that do not directly help them achieve their career goals are viewed as tedious work that gets in the way of their perceived 'crucial classes' that are vital to said goals.
Student A has aspirations of becoming a musician? Wonderful. Place them in a music theory class, a vocal class, a percussion class and any other available classes that will help them become the best musician they can possibly become. If a student is truly interested in the subject matter, a teacher will have no trouble whatsoever keeping them focused and engaged in class. I know from experience, as I am on the edge of my seat, hanging onto every word uttered in my spoken word class, though I really could not give less of a damn about pre-calculus.
Sep 28 2011: Hi Ethan Korpi Love
I am jealous of the teachers who get to teach you, being a teacher myself. I see you have an opinion and a way with words. I'm also happy for you as you describe how well the program at Stellar is working for you. Have you heard Sarah Kay? If you are interested in spoken poetry, you might like her material.
I have to agree with you about individualization. It seems obvious to me that it's necessary. I also hope for so much more when we begin to really recreate this thing called an education system.
Thanks for your insights,
Mark HurychSep 16 2011: First thing to reform is to realize that it's not "education" system we have , rather it's certification system.
Sep 18 2011: The knowledge that we possess should be the "Main Course" and Certificate is only "Dessert".
Sep 18 2011: Hi Lucius unfortunately currently DESERT became Main Course......
Marco Bucci
Sep 14 2011: I add one piece to the puzzle.
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Think about this quote. It should be kept in mind when planning any education system.
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."
Another point. I choose to not report the author of the quote for two main reasons:
1) if you agree and you are interested in the concept, you will be involved in searching for the source,
and most likely it will be part of you, and you will realize the power of the approach;
2) I believe that when an idea/concept is powerful enough and we truly believe in it, we will tend
to spread and defend as if it is ours. I think we should weight differently ideas/concepts vs "notionism".
Don't be shy to spread new ideas, if I give you an idea and you give me an idea, we will both have
gained something ;)
Sep 16 2011: Marco, I really do like your quote.
It identifies the relationship between learning and the learner. something easily forgotten I am afraid. I have been involved in the design and delivery of vocational based learning and the success oftencomes with delivery that is central to the experiences and relationships that reflect the needs of the learner and what is being learnt. Developing agentive learning styles creates responsive knowledge.Sep 17 2011: I teach adult students and yes, that's different than teaching youths but I believe that you are rright Marco. I haveunits to deliver that I am sure could be delivered in a classroom with a whiteboard or chalk board. I do use that medium but I also equally or more so, use a hands on approach where I let students make mistake and dont give them all the information that they need. I purposely let them fail, not to be sadistic or nasty but to let them discover why knowledge on that subject is important. I hold debrief sessions where all involved sit and openly discuss what when wrong, why and how it can be avoided or resolved. This seems a useful delivery method as tactile learners benefit from the hands on especially while visual or auditory learners get the knowlede from the white board sessions ( they also benefit from the hands on approach). I ve had some failures, but I am confident that tactile delivery is most important.Sep 18 2011: Awesome. i already know this quote - it's pretty much my mantra for education.
Cheyenne Lin
Sep 13 2011: have it like they do in belgium and europe in general... college is basically free there
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Sep 15 2011: I agree. Ive been to three colleges, and all they do is test you. The more you pay, the harder the tests are. But in every school ive gone to, the learning has always been up to me entirely. I shouldn't have to work my ass off and pay them my next 5 years salary at the same time. Next 5 years salary is an acceptable price for a brain implant... Learning anything requires working very hard, so therefore education should be a lot cheaper then it is now...
Comment deleted
Ben Jarvis
Sep 8 2011: we reform it by getting people who aren't educators out of the system. for many years now, government bureaucrats, psychologists, and school boards have been setting curriculum and teaching policy, not teachers. you'll find great teachers everywhere who know how to teach well, but are forced into the current method by the orders of superiors full of opinion but no experience.
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let the people who actually spend every day in the classroom do what they find works, and you'll get well-educated kids.
Sep 8 2011: I agree with this. The woman who wrote the legislature on educational reform has since rescinded her position, both figuratively and literally. After leaving her post she wrote a book (!) and went on NPR to discuss how she felt that she was wrong, (oops!) to have vehemently adopted such a drastic position on educational reform that standardized the learning process when there is no standard student. Despite MA being #1 in the new educational model, the results are teachers have to teach to the test, as opposed to teaching for the absorption of the material, as necessary.
Had her position never existed, had politics managed to stay out of the classroom, we would not have this new issue of "failing schools" where we now use test scores and grades as a metric of the schools' performance, instead of the grades reflecting on the individuals' performance. Politicians would not have these drastic power-play moves (such as Mayor Angel Tavares of Providence) where upon firing every teacher in the district is even an option to them.
With a Mayor making decisions like that, what is the purpose of the Superintendent, Dean of Students, Principal, Vice Principal, etc.? Why have administrators at all? Oh, that's right, they went to school to learn how to run a school. Yet law students, with no training in education, are the ones with the power to make decisions.
Yes, there is a severe problem with that.
Sep 9 2011: a good point on the law students, yet even law students have learned something, whereas elected officials and school board members can be absolutely anyone, and not only do they feel that they are more able than actual teachers, but this delusion is supported in that they are given power to enact their unfounded and ill-considered 'ideas'.
Mark Hurych
Sep 4 2011: Hi Taylor Kendal
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How do we reform (read "reconstruct") education?
Two words.
From scratch.
One word.
Mark Hurych
Sep 8 2011: Mark,
I think you have one of the more frightening ieas, but one heavy in potential energy. Could you elaborate a bit? From scratch I get, but what does an organic education system entail? There seems to be an evolutionary component here.
Mark Hurych
Sep 13 2011: And Taylor Kendal's retort tickles my fancy:
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"…what does an organic education system entail? There seems to be an evolutionary component here."
I do long for such evolution although I fear my words will fall on deaf ears…
I'm so glad you asked, Taylor. Our human (organic) needs are for well being, not for industrial production. (Sir Ken, the knighted pointer to problems says as much.) So when I say "organic," I am talking about everything that is not mechanical and linear about us humans.
I make many assumptions, including one that this moment is miraculous. I'll presume that we all have a potential for greatness. A metaphor arrives. What do we do with seeds that we want to see grow into healthy plants? Do we paint them all the same color, glue them to an artificial plant to show them what we expect, and punish them for not growing to the same height? No? Do we give all the different seeds the same exact conditions to nurture their best growth? No.
Continue the metaphor. Every seed has potential for greatness, but there are as many different kinds of greatness as there are different seeds/people. About 7 billion different paths reach healthy enriching education. Mass customization is one part of the answer. We have the technology, but damn it Jim, I'm a doctor not an engineer.
OK. There's that. Then there's this almost completely untapped collective collaborative cooperative "neuronic" fusion beginning to happen with the cognitive surplus and we-think potential of the operating perameters of the World Wide Neural Net, I mean "Web." If I only had half a brain and if I only had half the sense God gave a clam, I'd be using the biomimicry schemes just waiting for us. —as Nature herself intended of course.
Mark the shark in the darkSep 28 2011: An organic system exists for almost a century.
When not copied a lot can be learned from it.
Governments however, here as well as across the ocean are like trains. They sometimes take a switch but stay on their tracks.Sep 28 2011: Yes! I wholeheartedly agree! But where to start? Who dares to disassemble the labyrinth this obsolete system has turned into?
Sep 28 2011: The students... i am sure that any number of them would willingly tear down the system we are chained to but more importantly have the openness and creativity to build a system that allows the individual to be Individual!
Sep 29 2011: Ouch! You bring us to the news here, and again, you are right.
They themselves cannot take it anymore, and are raising against it in ways never seen before. If you get the news somewhere other than mainstream broadcasting you will know how it is happening in many places, from Chile to France... it is lasting months, and getting bloody...
Sad state of affairs... how long can we keep watching?
Icoonfal z
Sep 4 2011: I believe in order to reform education, the peer to teacher system must improve. I also believe that there should not be grade levels or standards because it so rarely improves grades, due to the stress and pressure it gives to the students that struggle to meet it. In order to make students learn, they have have to want to learn. Think about when you were a little child; your parents might of forced you to eat a certain vegetable, and you might of refused. No matter how much they forced you, you wouldn't abide. Well take that into consideration for education. You can't force the students to learn, its anti-productive. What this world needs is to allow the children to learn to love education, and challenges. We do this by allowing them to study and discover by themselves - not saying "hey just throw them in a school, maybe they'll find the books and read." It's more like guide them to find the answer without guiding them too much that you're doing all the work for them.
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I remember watching a ted talk about using the internet to change the way of teaching. Using the internet online courses as classes for students. This allows them to work at their own pace and allows them to absorb all of the material before passing to the next topic. It's brilliant, but the only flaw is - what's stopping them from not going online and watching those videos? The answer is simple, make them love education. Because love has the powerful drive to make a labor in to a passion and commitment.Sep 4 2011: Go tablets, abuse the internet, and have teachers trained in philosophy, psychology, and some form of art requirement.
Oh, and pay teachers good salaries??? Good pay = happy end of day mood ... you know, helping others and only getting words back can only keep one happy for soo long, but when little physical reward is recognized, I can see why teachers are quitting... why teach a bunch learning about sex younger and younger along with drugs, violence, consumerism, and even "band wagon personalities" in my opinion.. It isn't going to take one or two steps to creating a great education system. A lot of trial and error that cost people time and money and those who are in power do not want to waste "face time" doing "things" that are not immediately necessary...
More than the education system has to change for things to get better and/or for the education to REALLY change.
Public education is merely 1/3 of our actual educations in life. I would say less, but for fuzzy logic sense. 1/3 = family/guardians 1/3 = interest (music, friends, influences, etc..) The rest of education has to come from us, our explorations... We need to teach people how to explore properly, this education system is so poor. It disturbs me how little work I really did to have a B average my whole life. I learned more asking question to Google in a summer than 10 years of public school. Schools today teaches you how to cheat, lie, and manipulate your way to getting good grades.. I guess we are training politicians and nothing about politics, in retrospect.
I was never inspired in school, and that is what kids need. I created my own illusions of achievement as a kid.. "lawyer" "architect" and "toy designer" were my big 3 job wishes as a kid. Remember those? But, I was tricked then, you do NOT have to be ONE thing. I could well be an architect who part time designs toys whom is a retired lawyer... current do not wish such.
but why not tell a little kid he can well be a musician/engineer?Sep 28 2011: Easy Easy. Find a way to pay teachers a good salary--make it a competitive job. Attract the Brilliant to the job of teaching, instead of, as the old adage goes "those that can't do....".
Respect teachers. Revere teachers. If schooling and teachers become something of value in this country, over just a few generations, our entire society could change direction. If we keep cutting teachers, programs, funding, cultural programs, music art, science---exactly what can we expect in 20 years of our next adults? It's appalling how dismissive we are of a public school system that is already in place with the potential to outshine every other country in the world.
It begins with quality teachers--and quality teachers need investment and respect.Sep 26 2011: As an educator, trainer, and curriculum developer, here is my suggestion:
step 1: stop alowing attorneys and lobbyst to decide what and how to teach
step 2: bring back education of the people TO THE PEOPLE (allow local community and educators to make changes and have a measurable impact on all aspects of the process including curriculum, student/teacher ratio, salaries, etc only keeping federal oversight to insure safety, prevent abuses, and verify that minimal goals are met)
step 3: make TED talks on education, or by educators, as well as TED ED videos part of the yearly required training for both teachers and administrators. Offer educational credits
step 4: stop changing state objectives and testing/assessment tools every year or so; let the system -any, your pick- have enough time to work!
step 5: (really, we should start here) let children be children and stop pushing them towards the unattainable goal of perfection under the guise of career preparation. We all know, and research proves this, that social skills is what lands them a job and secures a promotion. Focus on real-life learning, more contact with nature, and social skills development. Minimum requirements: return to family time, throw away the TV, learn to use available technology to connect with others and spread ideas and plans.. Make education relevant to life!Sep 25 2011: Every year many documentaries are made like Earthling , Food Inc. and ...... All taking about Industrial animal farming, Animal rights and so on but there is not a single documentary about " Industrial Education ".
Have you seen the classes ? How much difference there is between our classes and industrial animal factories ? Kids with very different talents and very different paces of learning pushed into the same class, and they have to face the most boring and meaningless subjects and that Kills the Spirit of Human Nature in kids on a massive scale just as an Animal factory slaughters animals.
As Sir Robinson said Education does not need a reform but a revolution .The current system is almost 200 years old and for the super fast world of us it is too slow.
Education is an organized way of delivering information. There are two big issues the access to info and the way of deliverance.
Now that we have Internet and we don't have the problem of Access we can educate anyone anywhere not just the ones who can physically attend.
About deliverance , Now a days by using Games, Movies, Interactive media and all that we can deliver info in a way that was not possible before , in a very fun and amazing way, but do we do that ? No we still use the most boring most depressing methods that we used to have 200 years ago.
We always nag " our kids have problem with school " but don't seem to remember the fact that we , ourselves hated school, why ?
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once your Spirit has been tortured everyday by the Industrial Education system.
Sep 28 2011: Such learning programs for the internet are already in use with children that live on remote parts like Greenland or Alaska.
Most people involved in innovations, it seems to me, aren't able to look beyond the rim of their desk.Sep 28 2011: i just have to mention that i value a human connection with a teacher extremly highly... somebody who is actualy there and really knows the material not just a movie that tells me information... i feel like a problem that we already starting to encounter is that at least for me i feel sometimes that i am just another memory stick that needs as much as possible cramed into it... instead of something that has an individual view...
Sep 28 2011: Kevin I totally agree with you and I personally do not suggest that we should turn schools into Flash Memories , the system of how schools work should change base on the needs of todays digital age kids and should be more fun less intimidating and .....
What I am having in mind is a complement for the school not to close it, we humans love to be in groups , play in groups and learn in groups , all of our great memories are formed when we were in a group
but we don't want to be tortured in groups.
from Oxford English Dictionary TORTURE :
" great physical or mental suffering or anxiety "
Kids now a days are suffering mentally and get anxious all the time in the Schools , should not we change that ?
a Kid commits suicide for being bullied , is in that TORTURE ?Sep 24 2011: I think educaton should be a partnership between parents and teachers. Paretns have the capability to add experience and depth to lessons learned in school. Taking kids to museums, historic sites, national parks, or similar points of interest is one way to support and enrich lessons learned in school. Perhaps seeing the child gets to experience some arts, sports, cultural, political, or volunteer activities would help the balance. Teachers should comunmucate lessons to parents and offer suggestions for this type of activity. They have the vision of wherethe child's education will be going for that year, and with a little planning and foresight, perhaps the energy of the "helicopter parents" could be channeled into coordinated group activities such as scouts, concert trips, or similar field trips. from my experience in these areas i can tell you the problems are in transportation coordination (parents are very busy too) and liability(putting kids in some other parents car). Perhaps these issues could be discussed.Sep 23 2011: Equation? - sounds a bit of a joke to me.
Take bureaucrats out of the loop. Sorted.
Sep 26 2011: I agree 100%. Then, nobody from administration up would be left, and education would be back to what is meant to be: education. Not just a rush of information to meet state requirements, an excuse to get coveted grants and labels for the district, or babysitting from 8 to 5 till parents are off work.
Parents would be accountable for their children's development and growth, and teachers would return to be facilitators in that process.
Nur Shafikah
Sep 23 2011: I believe brilliance came in many forms. I do not believe in molding students but I strongly believe in growing them. They are like a seed of a plant; they are all different, different plants need different amount of water, soil and amount of sunlight to grow into a healthy plant. Students come with their own nature and the best thing to do to raise happy empowered students is to allow them to be who they are born to be instead of molding them to conform to the society ideas of what ideal people should be. We should let students to be more creative and explorative so that they will become critical thinking adults.
- +1
Education should be personalized to each individual because intelligence is as unique as a fingerprint and we should make the children realize their own element and not destroying their dreams. I believe that a great educator inspire and guide their students to achieve their dreams because imagination is the seed of success.
Joyce Early
Sep 17 2011: The government needs to get out of education. They want unthinking drones who don't question authority. They get unthinking drones who don't question authority. They don't teach civics and the Constitution any longer. They aren't teaching anymore they are providing a very expensive baby sitter that just entertains and doesn't challenge.
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Sep 18 2011: Totally agree. Check out my educational reshaping project I'm setting up... http://changethefuture.co.ukSep 15 2011: Doing away with administrators and hierarchy of money jugglers would be a good start.
Joe Fletcher
Sep 13 2011: It is kind of a tough question to answer since every school, and system has its own unique problems. Opening up room for experimentation, would seem to be a good way to try out new theories. New media is a great way to engage younger people. Young people are masters in social media, why not create school wide social sites where students can post questions, help others, communicate with teachers and even professionals in different subjects? Anyone who has played video games knows how they can submerse oneself in a different world. Say create completely navigatable recreations of ancient cities, where you can interact with people and learn about event, that would be a great interesting, engaging history lesson. Anything is possible in the digital world! I think another great reform would be to make education a community, experience. Kids get shoved in a box and have information thrown at them, we need to take theam outside and have the world shown to theam! Let the bigger population be involved, create states in the park, recite, poetry, and literature on the street. Show everyone around you how much fun learning can be!
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伟彬 陈
Sep 13 2011: Very simple, love is the solution to all problems.
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Ha ha, I come from China, here I want to make friends with you!
Sep 13 2011: I've had foreign students in my home from Afghanistan, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, India but never China. Welcome!
Jang hun
Sep 13 2011: hi~~~~~~~~~i'm Korean :)
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伟彬 陈
Sep 13 2011: What do you use chat tools?
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Jimmy Strobl
Sep 13 2011: Has anyone mentioned TED-ED? I don't see a link anywhere, so here it is! http://education.ted.com/
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And here's a link to (I think) the only conversation about TED-ED http://www.ted.com/conversations/4676/education_ted_com_ted_ed_ho.htmlSep 13 2011: I think it's impossible to reform education without reforming the way we view education. Our inability to resist "ranking" or "grading" ourselves against other students and tests hinders greatly our ability to truly and freely learn. Consistently comparing people to people denies the fact the we all learn incredibly different and view each lesson taught in the classroom in a completely different way. Until we each view ourselves as individual learners unable to be compared to others we cannot reform our education system, which is solely based on your ability to learn the way the teacher would prefer you to learn.
Sep 13 2011: Do you believe in the value of competition? This does not require measuring worth against another individual but there must be a standard of excellence to drive us to go beyond what is mediocre. The day we began giving everyone a trophy for simply suiting up is the day we started to devalue the fruit of hard work and determination. As a parent I try to instill a sense of competative spirit in my children, one that holds firm to honor, fairness, and teamwork. I also prepare them to risk failure and accept it as a natural event. This encourages them to reflect on where they can improve, develop a plan to overcome their shortcomings if possible, and try again.
Sep 13 2011: I agree with you and I'm an ex-college athlete and extremely competitive myself. I think it is necessary to compete and it does allow us to push each other to their best potential so to speak but I don't think a letter grade system is the best way to get the youth to compete. I think what I really meant by my first comment is that instead of competing against all students we should be competing against those with the same interests, fields of knowledge, and "career paths" if you want to call it that. I think, just as medicine is becoming extremely specific to the patient and circumstances, education should be specific and designed to single student cases. Rather than having students lumped into bell curves and letter grades we should get to know students individually and what moves them to compete with themselves and strive for excellence without putting them against others that learn differently or want to learn different things.Sep 12 2011: When we talk about education we must understand this topic from the socio-economic perspective. Most of the time we just like to blame the 'system' and crib about lack of creativity, etc. But, from an administrative perspective, education system is the source of the labour force that runs the economy. When we decide on an educational policy we have to consider the direction of our socio-economic progress.
Now, I know most of the readers visualize education and schooling as crayons and pigtails and when I spoil the picture with words like labour force and economy, they are bound to be taken aback. But, if you take a look at the origin and historical progress of universities, you will observe that they have been driven by socio-economic requirements. Take for example Land grant colleges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Colleges_Act) which resulted in universities like Ohio State & Texas A&M. Other examples are the ancient universities Takshashila and Nalanda in India. These universities were created because there was a huge demand for educated farmers, engineers, economists and administrators at those respective times. These universities have fed the economies and whether you accept it or not they have shaped the world as it is today and it is a world that is better than what it would be without these universities. So, as much as we love to complain about the educational systems, our economies are dependant on it.
So think about it. You want to change the educational systems around the world fine, do it, but do you understand the social and economic impact of the changes that you make? What happens to the economy if we are short of accountants, engineers and other such essential human resources? Our societies are modelled around these skills and we need an assured supply of a labour force with these skills, and today's universities do exactly that.
Yes, the education system always needs to evolve with time, but I do not think we need a revolution.
Sep 13 2011: According to Ken Robinson, the education system at the moment (I cannot of course speak for every country in the world) was modeled on a system that worked during the industrial revolution. That is why we are having problems now, as the world works differently now. The system is (basically) the same. It hasn't evolved with time, hence the need (or the seeming need) for a revolution. This would need a lot of people to go against their grain of thinking and take this (educated) risk. A tough call for conservatives I would think, but possible?
Aaron Padwa
Sep 10 2011: We need to change the form of education to the application of knowledge instead of just requring rehearsal of knowledge. This will require investment both in teachers, school administrations, and school facilities themselves. Unfortunately education is not really a priority for the elite of most countries; they would rather see a subservient undereducated working class proliferate than a well-educated population capable of understanding their circumstances and what lead to them. These circumstances being a low probability of seeing significant growth in personal wealth (to view it from an entirely economic standpoint). The elite would have to forfeit wealth if more people were educated and realized activism was necessary to change their current situation, the processes of the current economic and government systems being inefficient, insufficient affectors of change. If only people were not indoctrinated and distracted by the misleading promises of the political circus that serves only to distract people while critical, controversial decisions are being made on a level that excludes the majority opinion of the public and considers matters from an almost entirely economic standpoint (still leading to somewhat subjective opinions on what actions will lead to the highest economic growth, and even worse these subjective opinions are made by a small subset of the population who are being manipulated and influenced by corporate interests...and this corporate influence is much greater than the influence the general population has over major decisions...we have the choice between a few selfish, shitbag political candidates who have already sold out to even have the opportunity to be a political candidate, and then they make ridiculous, unrealistic promises that never come to fruition). To cut this story short and make my point, in a capitalist system activism is necessary to bring about change (such as education) that is beneficial but not clearly linked to economic growth
- +1
Tara Leona
Sep 7 2011: In my opinion, education needs to emphasise on creativity a lot more.
- +1
I am not talking about paiting pictures and let the kids to whatever they want to but about a more diverse way of solving problems and to apply them to every subject.
When you look at a question creatively you also can argue on a totally different level and therefore broaden your horizon.
on the other hand, always, always support a child with its passion otherwise it will not develop or maintain its creative skills.
In order to achieve these aims, you will need to change syllabi and open up questions in exams so they will not ask for a specific answer ( and put some kind of evaluation into maths questions)
Since I am still going to school, I am not pleading for harder exams but for more acceptance of different kinds of intelligence and talents.
Sep 8 2011: Tara, couldn't agree more! Times have changed, and to ignore that fact is simply ignorant. Creativity is king today and kids that aren't free to explore their innate abilities (which typically come off as misbehaving) are simply having their true potential thwarted. I've been working with primary sources from the Library of Congress for a number of years (http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/) and the potential for creativity and inquiry is amazing. Children these days are remarkable, just not in the way we may have defined remarkable in the past.Sep 10 2011: And Creativity without proper spiritual foundation may be disastrous. The present generation is not lagging in the creativity, I believe. Creativity is good and required. Today World is so much diversifies and have both goods and bads, and they are being penetrated into everyones' lives without knowing. So without comprehension, education may end up useless.Sep 6 2011: This is a great article:
the take away from it?
The relationship between parents and teachers needs to improve, if we are to educate kids and make them better people. Parents need to trust educators as professionals, heed our advice and our insights.
The general media and politicians would do well by our educational system if they would stop demonizing teachers. More than the majority are good with great intentions. Yet we drive away the really ideal teachers. We can't make the system better if we're always scaring away the best and brightest to teach in other countries where educators are respected and well paid. (Imagine that!)
Nivedita Ram
Sep 6 2011: Reformation Not Enough...Revolution is required. Start from the fundamentals
- +1
The whole system is cuurently wrong. So, there should be no debate on reforming it; it is time for a revolution. A real educational system should take care of the whole individual; the current system takes care only of the mind. The whole individual actually means the body, mind, heart and soul. Unless education takes care of all four in a balanced way, it cannot create a whole individual.
Jan Kreider
Sep 5 2011: Education should be based on what we know about how people learn. Our brains have evolved over time to help us survive and thrive. We naturally notice and wonder about what gets our attention. The educational environment needs to provide opportunities for the learner to notice, wonder, postulate, and search for information to satisfy this natural way of learning. The "basics" are not discrete skills and information. The basics are thinking and creative problem solving. The natural inquiry process needs only a prepared or natural environment to be stimulated. When the learner is thus motivated to follow his/her inquiry path, he/she is then open to learning the processing skills for researching the information needed. Reading then has a purpose, mathamatics is then needed, tools of inquiry such as libraries, technology, interview, etc. are needed - by the learner. The challenge to the professional educator or parent is to provide the environmental opportunities to stimulate this natural inquiry approach to learning and then provide the discrete skills and knowledge needed. It can and has been done by those who intuitively understand this or those who have studied learning and worked with children by observing how they naturally learn.
- +1
How do we change a long establshed bueracracy to do this? Find the "thoroughbreds" in education and suppport them for leadership positions. Universities are not producing this type of leadership by the fragmented programs they provide. Curriculum needs to be redesigned based on this understanding that the learner constructs his/her own knowledge through his/her own inquiry.
Sep 8 2011: Jan,
Have you read Howard Gardner's book on the 7 intelligences? This is the generally accepted understanding of how and why people learn differently. Education for educators typically includes psychology and application of the practice to create different methods of teaching the same information in a variety of methods. Good teachers already make daily practice of incorporating the different learning styles into each lesson.


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IBM has become the worldwide leader in UNIX systems revenue* through the consistent delivery of POWER™ processor-based systems with leadership performance and proven reliability. The confidence that IBM will deliver innovative UNIX technologies in a timely manner supports IT infrastructure planning to support business growth.
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garden.com > Patio Furniture > Outdoor Furniture Accessories > Patio Furniture Covers > Item # G30604
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Design Expressions Chaise Lounge Cover
Protection and Beauty!
Features of Metro Brown Collection:
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Regular- 30"H x 27"W x 80"D
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*Design Expression Covers are designed to fit a variety of shapes and sizes of furniture.
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Design Expressions,Now you can extend the beauty of your outdoor living space even when it is necessary to cover your furniture! A perfect blend of function and fashion, this new line of design oriented covers enhances the beauty of your furniture even when it is covered. Instead of the uninspiring options available today, these patio covers offer you the choice to cover your valuable furnishings in style and beauty.
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When you were a kid, you proudly walked to school every day with a Houston Astros lunch box tucked underneath your arm – you never missed an opportunity to show off that Astros pride to your buddies at school! As an adult, you still boast that team spirit any chance you get. Bring along this Catchers cooler lunch box from Rawlings and brag to all your buddies at the office that the Astros are still the best. This cooler features a screen print team logo on the top, an insulated liner to keep your food and drinks cold, and an adjustable carry handle for easy transport. It also doubles as the perfect game day accessory since it holds up to six cans of your favorite beverage. Whether you're enjoying the sunshine at another Houston game or sitting beneath the fluorescents at your desk, bring along this team-spirited cooler that's sure to put your team pride out there for everyone to see!
- 420D Polyester
- Adjustable carry handle
- Front mesh pocket
- Imported
- Insulated to keep food & beverage cold
- Measures approximately 9" x 6" x 9.5"
- Officially licensed MLB product
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Matthew Jenkin puts his mind at rest to get his body in gear during his Olympic body challenge
Oscar Wilde famously said he could resist everything but temptation. I can resist everything except a vodka Martini and a double chocolate gateaux.
Or at least, that was the case before I started my three month challenge to look and feel like an Olympian before the London 2012 games.
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The Course Racer Cap blends a cotton cap with a polyester brim for a performance-driven but traditional, cycling-heritage look. Fits perfectly under a helmet for added protection or sweat absorption with a polyester brim to catch moisture. The Racer Cap is a one-size-fits-all style.
The coveted essential elements of any cyclist whose passion fringes lunacy. A cohesive blend of second skin fit, new era styling, versatile materials, and focused technology. Apparel whose conceptual advances and fabric performance through researched biological considerations. Define yourself by stepping into the psyche of a pro.
© Louis Garneau Sports Inc. 2015


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Don't Believe What You See On Your TV.The talking heads and political doomsday soothsayers are akin to maddened prophets wandering the deserts seeking the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They proclaim economic depression and recession and turn it into obsession. The evidence from the Fontana Super Chevy show stands defiantly in the face of their predictions. This year, there were a total of 454 registered racers running down the track. That number was 100 more cars than last year.
Let us digest this for just a minute. One hundred more racers this year than last year, a hundred more cars in a region they claim is one of the hardest hit in this supposed recession. Many of us know racing is not atop the list of affordable sports to enter into. There were 454 cars and crews spending money on fuel, and probably lots of beer, competing against each other and having fun. (Well, maybe the Nova driver, who spilled transmission fluid down the entire length of the track, shutting it down for well over an hour didn't have so much fun once people caught up with him, but I digress.)
As for the car show side of things, it was OK. When the rain clouds rolled in Sunday, many California car owners ran for cover. There were dozens of hardboiled owners who braved the ferocious two-minute drizzle that quickly blew away and instead enjoyed the unusually cool air that day. Still, an additional 37 vehicles showed up on Super Chevy Sunday despite the morning showers. For those who had to wait in the chaotic two-hour-long line to get into the gate, we're working to change that next year so everyone can be in place in a timely manner.
Typical of Southern California, though, the show cars were exemplary with the kind of attention to detail West Coast Chevys are known for. In the Gold Class was a '67 Chevy Nova, as beautiful a custom as we've seen, but it was powered by a Northstar V-8. Can you feature a car in SUPER CHEVY that's not Chevy powered? What do you think?
Also on hand was a Chevrolet Hydrogen Fuel Cell Equinox, courtesy of General Motors. Editor Jim Campisano got a turn behind the wheel and reports that it was near silent inside. "Except for the fact that it burns no fossil fuels and makes no noise under acceleration except for a muted turbo-like whine, it felt like a regular Equinox," he said. "Very interesting, but this type of vehicle is still 10 years down the road from an infrastructure standpoint. But the concept is intriguing."


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A 1998 science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas.< read all 12 reviews
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Dark City is a 1998 neo noir science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas. It was adapted from a screenplay written by Proyas, David S. Goyer and Lem Dobbs. The film stars Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer Connelly. Sewell plays John Murdoch, a man suffering from amnesia who finds himself accused of murder. Murdoch attempts to discover his true identity to clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known only as the "Strangers". Dark City asks the question of what it means to be human, and explores the relationship between memory and personal identity in an attempt to answer it.
The majority of the film was shot at Fox Studios Australia. It was jointly produced by New Line Cinema and Mystery Clock Cinema. New Line Cinema and New Line Home Video commercially distributed the theatrical release and home media respectively. The studio was concerned that the audience would not understand the film and asked Proyas to add an explanatory, voice-over narration to the introduction. The film premiered in the United States on February 27, 1998, competing against James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic. Dark City performed poorly at the U.S. box office during its initial release and received mixed reviews.
Following its screening in wide cinematic release, the film was nominated for the Hugo and Saturn Awards. With the help of Roger Ebert and home screenings, the film has since become a cult classic. In the years since its...


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Nov 20, 2008
Control the NXT with a keyboard
I get a lot of emails from users who what to use the keyboard to control a robot. So I decided to write a (new) Bluetooth remote that will allow you to do just that. With the remote you can also select from a variety of different sensors and read it's value with a single press of a button. Download the remote from my website. Hope you Enjoy
12 comments:
WOW! Thank you. Worked without a hitch. I believe the NXT should have come with this software. Very handy for debugging sensor values, testing motor speeds, etc.
- Nov 20, 2008, 4:22:00 PM
- Anders Søborg said...
Glad to hear -:)
- Nov 20, 2008, 4:28:00 PM
- Brian Davis said...
I agree - it sounds like a really nice application. I'd test it out... but there's not a Mac version :(.
Brian Davis
- Nov 20, 2008, 10:01:00 PM
- Anders Søborg said...
Sorry - he he. Maybe nxt time
- Nov 21, 2008, 5:18:00 AM
Hmmm, if it's in C++, couldn't you release the source code/text file, and then people could compile it to work on their Macs/Linuxes? I know you can get a C compiler for Mac, and Linux comes with one (well, Ubuntu dose), but I'm not entirely sure whether C compilers could compile C++. I doubt it. But, there's probably free stuff around somewhere. If you released the code, I could try to compile it for Mac. But if you have a Mac, then you'd probably be better doing it than me!
- Nov 21, 2008, 6:15:00 AM
- Anders Søborg said...
I am sorry to let you know that it is made using Borland c++ builder 6.0 - so ...
- Nov 21, 2008, 8:37:00 AM
- megamindstorm101 said...
Wow Thanks I have been waiting for this forever. I search the web for remotes to control the NXT with a keyboard and this looks great. I didnt download it becasue right now im working on a web browser (im using it right now as a test) and wow this is so cool. I will download asap
- Nov 21, 2008, 11:00:00 AM
Oh well. Thanks anyway, Anders/Mr. Soborg! I might be a getting a bluetooth dongle so I can run bluetooth stuff on my PC, so will try it then. Is that C++ builder free?
- Nov 21, 2008, 8:50:00 PM
Thanks a ton, this is the only thing I've been doing with my NXT for about 3 days. I had a bit of a problem figuring out which com port the NXT was connected to but once I figured that out it worked wonderfully. Thanks.
- Nov 24, 2008, 3:51:00 AM
For some reason I cannot access the given website!!
- Dec 7, 2008, 2:36:00 AM
- electromagnatic rao said...
dude your keyboard works great!! one question i had was how do i get something like this for Labview 8.5.. basically i am trying to make control keyboard for Labview so i can remote it through that software rather then just normal gui interface like the one u have provided. if u have any ideas please help me out and shoot me an email at firstname.lastname@example.com
thanx soo much in advanced
- Feb 19, 2009, 7:11:00 AM
- NXTPuny said...
Wow, I LOVE this software, thanks for making it!
- Jan 13, 2010, 2:58:00 PM


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Suggestion: Create something like "schedule.unl.edu" as an alias/redirect that can always go to the public schedule of classes, wherever it may actually be.
The current URL is https://myred.nebraska.edu/psp/myred/NB ... TION=NEUNL, which is about as inelegant and unintuitive a URL as you can get, through no fault of the NU/NSCS people working on PeopleSoft portals for all the campuses. Part of the complication is that it's doing a dummy login to enable a public view of schedule data, so I expect the URL will change again (still not to anything pretty) when somebody's able to improve on the workaround, and I'm not sure they'll be able to redirect this one. Meanwhile there are still sites using the old, pre-PS http://unlsched.unl.edu/nusched/index.jsp, which now has a redirect.
If somebody created schedule.unl.edu and got the word out to us developers, we could all use that tidy little URL on our pages and when the schedule inevitably moves again we'd only need 1 person to update the location in 1 file.


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The Phoenix District welcomes you!
The Phoenix District of the Sam Houston Area Council - Boy Scouts of America serves the Klein ISD area, west of Kuykendahl Road.
Most Phoenix District events and activities can be found via the menu pages on the left side of your screen - most of these are open to the public. The center section shows what's happening in the near future, but you'll need a username to access any additional info there. The right side shows our calendar for the next few weeks; you'll have to log in to access the full calendar. All registered adults in the Phoenix District should have usernames. If you haven't received yours, please click "Request Access" on the left.
Yours in Scouting,


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Regular meetups are held in the bay area – see the Facebook page and the Meetup.com page. There is also a New York meetup group (see the Facebook page) and more coming soon.
If you'd like to start a new meetup group, please sign up as a seasteading ambassador and contact us.
November 2012 – December 2013
Join Students For Liberty at the University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, November 3 for the 2012 Students For Liberty Northern California Regional Conference. Berkeley is home to one of the strongest pro-liberty student groups in the country and the UC Berkeley Students For Liberty are proud to welcome students from across California to the home of the free speech movement for one incredible event celebrating liberty.
Several members of the seasteading community recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to support the Voice & Exit event in Austin, TX, to be held on Saturday, March 9, 2013 (in parallel with the SXSW interactive conference). The event is designed to bring people together in celebration of big ideas, social entrepreneurship and radical community formation. Speakers will include Max Marty, CEO of the seasteading startup Blueseed, along with Institute board member Michael Strong, Reason Magazine Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, and many more. Each of the speakers will highlight a different vision for using innovative social technologies and persuasion, rather than coercive institutions, to move toward more collaborative communities.
From the campaign homepage:
We know that people are individuals with unique visions to share. But forming community means finding common values. Within a diverse range of communities, individuals will be able to seek out environments they believe best contribute to their thriving. In a world with so many different possible forms of association, everyone will need both the right to voice her opinion and the right to exit if a community isn't working for her. So we ask: What if humanity placed higher value on the rights of voice and exit? What would the world look like? We think it would be a world of continuous innovation – a world in which people "criticize by creating." This is what Voice & Exit is all about.
Those who are interested can contribute to the inaugural event, or contact the campaign organizers at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Ephemerisle is a floating celebration of community, learning, art and seasteading.
We construct a floating city on the Sacramento River Delta and live on it for five days. Ephemerisle has elements of Burning Man in the early 1990s: a new adventure into an alien environment, with discoveries, adventures, and mishaps along the way.
There are no tickets, no central organizers, and no rangers to keep you safe.
We are pleased to have seasteading ambassador and Florida congressional candidate Gabriel Rothblatt as the guest speaker for this July's seasteading meetup. We hope to see Fiddler's Green Seasteading Meetups make a comeback, after a period of inactivity, thanks to Gabriel's initiation. Gabriel has brought enthusiasm and a compelling perspective to the ambassadors team – now he is using his campaign for Florida's 8th District (commonly known as the Space Coast) to spread many of the values of the core seasteading community.
While the Institute does not formally endorse political candidates, we are glad to provide Gabriel with a platform to draw much-needed attention to future technology and its impact on society. Born on the 100th anniversary of the man who invented the orbit-breaking rocket, and pioneered GPS and satellite communication, Gabriel had a childhood dream to be the first mayor of an orbital colony. For him, the closest realization of that dream today is becoming the Representative from the Space Coast. In a time when politicians are becoming increasingly short-sided, we see wisdom in Gabriel's plan to restore government as an investor in science and technology. His education agenda is based on the recognition that our current system is producing false expectations and a mismatch with the real-world economy, and that young people must be equipped with skills for jobs that may not exist yet.
Gabriel has experienced multiple systems of education, from home schooling to military academies. He has worked in industries ranging from factories to franchising. Gabriel has also maintained a marriage for over a decade, and has four kids. Supporting his family on a single income in a tough economy, Gabriel knows from personal experience what it takes to achieve the American dream in the new millennium.
"Seasteading, transhumanism, human longevity and the singularity are not concepts the general public are ready to comprehend. My presence in the political arena will force a discussion on these matters, and I have decided that I would rather loose and allow them better acknowledgement, than win by distancing myself. That being said I fully intend to win this election. By expressing my passionate understanding of the intended path of space colonization (which includes seasteading as a necessary precursor), I can swing enough points to push Bill Posey from office." – Gabriel Rothblatt, July 2013
Seasteaders and Ephemerislers are invited to gather for a potluck to celebrate the holiday season.
When: Sunday, December 8, 2013 – 9:00am until 11:30am
Where: Infinity Club Lounge, 333 Main Street, San Francisco, CA
The Seasteading Institute will provide light fare, coffee, tea, and mimosas, plus plates, cups, and utensils. We encourage attendees to bring a dish to share.
The Institute will give a brief update on its progress with The Floating City Project. We will share the latest seastead concept, along with insights about the market for residential seasteads, and the prospects for finding a suitable location in a host nation's territorial waters to develop the first seastead by the end of the decade.
Ephemerislers are invited to share success (and failure) stories of the growing festival, and inspire novel ideas for 2014.
We look forward to seeing all of our old friends and making new ones.
Happy Holidays!