Archive for October 21st, 2011
Oct
21
Digital Badges The Great Equalizer
It’s time to “blow-up” our antiquated college admissions process. The archaic ritual of getting into college by SAT/ACT scores and GPAs has outlived its usefulness. We need to take drastic action if for no other reason than to recognize the crisis we have with students who score well enough on the SAT/ACT to be admitted to colleges, only to fail to graduate once they begin a post-secondary education. We need to replace the current system with one that measures mastery of knowledge AND skills, and is accessible to all.
Let’s swap out the one-dimensional process (grades and test scores) and introduce relevancy and readiness (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
View of the Arab Spring Through a French Window
The Chateau was very elegant. It was impressive without being ostentatious. As I got out of the car and took a look at it, I thought it was worth making the long trip from the U.S. to Meru, France, a picturesque hamlet outside Paris, to learn and teach in such a beautiful venue (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
E Stands for Errors
“House” for “horse.” The number 1 for the letter l. Strange, random characters where accented characters should be. If you read e-books, you’ve seen mistakes like these, and more. Most are mildly distracting (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
A New Approach to Immigration Its Time to Stop Blaming Immigrants
Immigration has become a toxic issue in the United States, hijacked and misconstrued to the point of hysteria, while the causes and solutions are traceable and quantifiable but have been ignored. The most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression has increased the stress of families across the United States, drastically affecting the way that the immigration debate is targeted.
As we witness the widespread vilification of immigrants in the U.S. and the anti-immigrant policies that it has inspired, we turn a blind eye to the role that U.S (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Congress Reject Indefinite Detention
The US Congress should reject provisions in a defense spending bill that would permit long-term indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First, released a video today showing that such legislation would repeat broadly recognized mistakes of the past.
During World War II, some 70,000 American citizens were detained without charge because of their Japanese heritage. In 1950, during the rise of McCarthyism, the US passed the Emergency Detention Act authorizing detention of people who had not actually committed any act but who would “probably” engage in “acts of espionage or of sabotage” – the law was later repealed (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Occupy My Street A New Face of Unemployment in America
After reading yet another piece written by someone who is gainfully employed about the unemployment crisis, I ingested a rather large piece of humble pie and decided to address the issue in first person.
Like many of my unemployed 40- and 50-something marketing colleagues, I’ve been on a job hunt for the better part of a year. During that time, I’ve had consulting projects here and there that temporarily pay the bills. I have never filed for unemployment, deciding to dig into my bank account rather than get my own personal government bailout. And I pray a lot, hoping that around the corner, somewhere will be a professional “forever family” that wants to benefit from my talents and wealth of expertise.
I have been very fortunate and blessed in my career (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Right 2 Know March Finally Arrives Part 3
They walked 313 miles from Brooklyn to the White House to protest the fact that American’s don’t have the right to know that GMOs are in most of their food. And only a small group of us were there to meet them. I asked a policeman if he would arrest me and he refused, damn it.
Around the corner, thousands of people showed up for the Martin Luther King Dedication. Our march even had to wait for the President to return home (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
UCLA Bruins vs Arizona Wildcats Recap October 20 2011 ESPN
Source:Associated Press
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TUCSON, Ariz. — Tim Kish has had a simple message for his players since taking over for Mike Stoops: Have fun.The Wildcats did just that with an emotional victory that was marred by a a wild brawl, giving their interim coach a victory in his first game while sending UCLA’s coach possibly closer to losing his job.Dusting off an aggressive defensive scheme and relying on a recharged running game to complement Nick Foles’ passing, Arizona ran over the Bruins 48-12 Thursday night.”I had one wish for them when we left the team hotel this morning: I just wanted them to enjoy playing the game again,” Kish said. “I think that wish came true.”
More From ESPNLosAngeles.com
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel saw his team collapse at the worst possible time for his career, Peter Yoon writes. Story
• UCLA blog
Foles threw for 291 yards and connected with Juron Criner for three touchdown passes. That wasn’t much of a surprise considering the way Arizona (2-5, 1-4 Pac-12) has piled up yards through the air.The running game, dormant all season, came to life behind huge holes created by the much-maligned offensive line, churning out 254 of Arizona’s season-high 573 yards and three touchdowns — two by Taimi Tutogi.The defense, another sore spot under Stoops, was just as good behind a throwback scheme called the “Double Eagle Flex,” an aggressive front designed to clog up lanes against good running teams.The combination allowed the Wildcats to build a 35-point halftime lead and cruise to an emotional victory, ending a five-game losing streak that had cost Stoops his job on Oct. 10.”We all felt like we were out on the playground again, just little kids,” Arizona linebacker Paul Vassallo said.The Bruins (3-4, 2-2) couldn’t withstand the emotion of a team playing under a new coach and may have put theirs in jeopardy with a lackluster effort. On the hot seat before the season started, Rick Neuheisel may have taken big blow with a loss that puts a serious dent in UCLA’s bowl chances.Within a half-game of Arizona State and USC in the Pac-12 South heading into the game, the Bruins came out flat against Arizona in front of a national TV audience, which likely won’t go over well back in Southern California.”My argument is I’m absolutely the right guy for the job,” Neuheisel said. “I’m looking forward to continuing in that quest.”It will likely be tough after this.One of the nation’s best rushing teams, UCLA had 37 yards on 25 carries against a team that was 100th in the nation at 196 yards per game. Kevin Prince was mostly ineffective in his return to the starting lineup, hitting 17 of 35 passes for 286 yards and a touchdown.The Bruins also lost a pair of fumbles in the first half and the defense had no chance at stopping the Wildcats — ground or air — as the game quickly got out of hand.Frustration boiled over in the closing seconds of the first half, when a wild brawl spread about 60 yards across the field after a streaker dressed like an official ran onto the field.Players pushed and shoved, a few wild punches were thrown and two players were ejected: Arizona defensive back Shaquille Richardson and UCLA receiver Taylor Embree.The streaker? He got down to his underwear before a security person made a crushing tackle — one as good as any UCLA made in the entire first half.”They whipped us,” Neuheisel said. “The first half was a very, very lopsided half of football. I don’t know what to say other than we’ve got to play much better.”One of Kish’s main goals was to make football fun again for the Wildcats, who had lost 10 straight games against FBS opponents and eight straight in conference.They certainly enjoyed themselves against UCLA, getting touchdowns on all six of their first-half drives while scoring 42 points, their most in a half in Pac-10/Pac-12 play and more than any of their previous six games.Keola Antolin ran for 77 yards on just eight carries, freshman Ka’Deem Carey had an 18-yard TD run and Criner finished with 10 catches for 101 yards to give Arizona its first win over an FBS opponent since beating UCLA 29-21 last Oct. 30 in Pasadena.”That was definitely a lot of fun,” Arizona center Kyle Quinn said.Neuheisel was concerned about Arizona’s passing game and rightly so after Foles had thrown for more than 2,200 yards and 15 touchdowns the first six games.Foles did what he expected, hitting 26 of 39 passes while connecting with Criner on TD passes of 4, 7 and 25 yards in the first half.What Neuheisel didn’t anticipate was getting run over by the Wildcats.One of the nation’s worst rushing teams, Arizona carved out huge holes in UCLA’s defense that Antolin, Tutogi and Carey had no trouble racing through. The Wildcats surpassed their season average of 71.8 yards per game after one quarter and had 174 by halftime.”We really owned the line of scrimmage on offense tonight,” Kish said.Arizona also had been plagued by slow starts, left scrambling after being outscored 41-3 in the first quarter in its previous five losses.No such problem this time.Foles hit Criner on a 4-yard TD pass on the Wildcats’ opening drive. Carey followed with a juking, dive-for-the-pylon score from 18 yards out.Criner added his second touchdown by snatching the ball away from UCLA’s Aaron Hester early in the second quarter. UCLA fumbled, Tutogi scored on a 1-yard dive, then Foles and Criner connected again, this time from 25 yards. Another Bruins fumble, another Tutogi touchdown run, this one from 8 yards out to make it 42-7 just before halftime.And, to think, Kish was the defensive coordinator under Stoops the past eight seasons.”It wasn’t like they did anything crazy,” UCLA linebacker Patrick Larimore said. “They imposed their will on us and we weren’t able to bounce back.”And, at least for the Wildcats, it sure was fun.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com
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Oct
21
How to Set Goals Without Caring About the Outcome
Are you confused between the difference between setting goals and being attached to outcomes? Learn the big difference between these two.
Many people experience confusion regarding the difference between setting goals and letting go of attachment to outcomes. A client and I were discussing being in the moment with her work, rather than stressing about the outcome. “Then how can you set goals for yourself? Everyone sets goals based on the outcome. Why else would you even set goals or try to accomplish anything?”
Setting goals is a very positive and powerful thing to do (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
The College Visit Done Right
Year after year, the autumn season prompts the falling of leaves from trees, football season, and the start of the college admission process. As a part of this process, many student and their families (including myself) visit prospective colleges.
While informational tours offered by the admissions office can be helpful, they tend to get repetitive from college to college. These tours usually consist of a student volunteer walking backwards, showing a large group of prospective students and their parents around the college campus (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Im in a High School Fraternity
Have you ever heard the expression “it changed my life?” Better yet, have you ever heard somebody say that and then two weeks later it was as if they had never experienced the entity they were talking about in the first place? Well for me, BBYO is not one of those things. I am proud to be able to say that BBYO truly has changed my life.
BBYO, or The B’nai Brith Youth Organization, is the world’s largest pluralistic Jewish Youth Movement in the entire world. Its goal, as stated by its mission statement, is to provide more Jewish teens with more Jewish experiences. However, what makes the organization so appealing to its members isn’t its ability to provide them with Jewish opportunities — those are available at the local synagogue — but instead its commitment to providing these opportunities in a way that makes the teen feel like they are making a difference, because the truth is that they really are.
When I am asked for what BBYO is to me, I always respond the same way (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
The Economics of Occupy Wall Street
On a normal day, college students in Arkansas don’t particularly care what’s happening in New York (at least, not unless it’s on SNL or ESPN). But on a not-so-normal day last week, as I left a Chipotle on Dickson Street — the veritable heart of our little college town here at the University of Arkansas — I noticed a gaggle of Occupy Wall Street protesters shouting, waving and generally avenging capitalism.
Of course, scary financial empires are few and far between in Fayetteville, so I suppose it was a satellite movement — moral support and such.
As a plucky member of the 99%, it would be easy for me to jump on the bandwagon. But what would I be supporting?
Occupy protestors are angry because they think the system is rigged against them, and they resent the rich because they feel like there’s a power monopoly (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Occupying the First Amendment
Whatever else it accomplishes, Occupy Wall Street is revealing distortions in our current understanding of the First Amendment. In recent decisions, the Supreme Court has protected Wall Street’s constitutional right to pour millions into political campaigns. But as presently construed, the First Amendment isn’t an obstacle when it comes to silencing the Occupiers.
The demonstrators were almost evicted from Zuccotti Park last Friday; but were saved, paradoxically, by Zuccotti’s status as a private enclave reserved for public use by zoning laws. In contrast, New York City imposes a flat ban on sleeping in its public parks.
Worse yet, the Supreme Court upheld such a prohibition in 1984, finding that the government’s interest in cleaning up the parks trumped protesters’ rights to freedom of expression (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Why Being in a Crowd Make Us Callous
It happens, it would seem, with the regularity of the new moon. Unfortunately, every month or so a news story captures local, national, or even global attention because of the apparent indifference of a crowd of people. This week it’s the very sad story of a toddler at a market in China who was gravely injured by a hit-and-run driver (actually, multiple drivers), then lay bleeding in the street while passersby took no action.
As often happens in cases like these (whether the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, N.Y. or the 1993 abduction and torture of young James Bulger outside Liverpool, England) the accusations and recriminations quickly started to fly (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Embracing Discomfort What it means to Be Fearless
Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, love more, and all good things will be yours. ~ Swedish Proverb
At some point over the last few years, I started thinking about fear. This isn’t the scary movie, dark and rainy knock at the door fear. This is the fear that slowly stirs you out of bed in the middle of the night, the fear that speaks quietly and reminds you of the most essential parts of you (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
You Lie More Often Than You Think And What to Do About It
“The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping.” — Claudius Claudianus
Once, in a relationship class I was presenting, I gave a homework assignment to each participant which required them to commit to living one full week with a willingness to communicate exactly what they were thinking and feeling to those with whom they had any contact. This included family, friends and even strangers. What I discovered was that many people are greatly challenged in their ability to be honest and transparent when it comes to saying what they really think to others. They are conflicted between what they really think, and their desire (need) to not risk the disapproval of others (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Movie Review Norman
In Norman, Norman (Dan Byrd) seems like a normal high-school kid: He’s smarter than he probably knows, he feels like he’s carrying world is on his shoulders, he’s lovelorn and he’s too nervous to make the move on a girl.
Oh yeah, and his mother died in a car accident recently and now his father (Richard Jenkins) is dying of cancer. Is it any wonder that Norman is considering suicide?
But he speaks before he acts in Jonathan Segal’s sometimes funny, sometimes tragic film about a kid dealing with pressure. In this case, he kills himself figuratively: Asked what’s bugging him on the day when his father has received a terminal diagnosis, Norman blurts, “I have cancer,” and then can’t quite bring himself to take it back.
The word spreads and everyone starts treating Norman differently. They’re nice, more considerate, more compassionate – all of which he hasn’t felt much of until now (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Give Your Heart a Gift for Food Day
To help encourage healthier ways of eating, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest is working with food and health advocates of all stripes to create Food Day, Oct. 24. Its goals are nothing less than to reshape the nation’s diet and orient food and farm policies toward healthier people and a healthier environment. Thousands of classrooms, colleges, churches, city halls, health departments and families all over the country are organizing events, including family meals, to inspire Americans to change their individual diets for the better (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Interview Creators talk about gay drama The Green
Writer-producer Paul Marcarelli got the germ of the idea for his new film, The Green, when he noticed that, in dividing his time between his adopted hometown of Guilford, Ct., and his apartment in Brooklyn, he also seemed to divide his personality – or, at least, his behavior.
“New York City is the place where you’re gay until proven otherwise,” Marcarelli says, sitting in an Upper West Side diner in Manhattan. “But in Connecticut, when you’re the only gay guy on the block, you find yourself spending a lot of time making sure other people are comfortable. It’s this feeling that you need to be a good gay ambassador because you’re the only one in the neighborhood. There’s a level of internalized shame – and shame is at the root of Michael’s challenge in this film.”
In The Green, which debuted on digital platforms this week, Michael (Jason Butler Harner) is a well-liked English teacher at a private school in a small Connecticut community, where he lives with his partner, Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson), a popular vegetarian caterer (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Punto Latino Population Growing Identity Shifting
Punto Latino, a weekly column by Voto Latino, examines the news to bring you insight on how it affects our lives. We comment on topics that have dominated the headlines and items that didn’t get their deserved attention. If it matters to Latinos, you’ll find it here.
By Michael Saldarriaga
Last week, NPR posted an intriguing interactive map that shows demographic changes in the United States, with a dedicated filter demonstrating the growth in the Latino population, state-by-state, county-by-county, and tract-by-tract.
A quick glance at the map tells you a few of things. First, the Latino population is growing quickly throughout the country, with all but six states experiencing Latino population growth over 40 percent (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Ending The Laws That Fuel Mass Detention and Deportation
By Judy Rabinovitz, Deputy Director, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
The Department of Homeland Security assumes that mass detention is the key to immigration enforcement. But in fact, our detention system locks up thousands of immigrants unnecessarily every year, exposing detainees to brutal and inhumane conditions of confinement at massive costs to American taxpayers. Throughout the next two weeks, check back daily for posts about the costs of immigration detention, both human and fiscal, and what needs to be done to ensure fair and humane policy.
One of the ugliest myths in the immigration debate is that immigrants are more likely to commit crime. Although studies repeatedly show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, politicians have long exploited the myth of immigrant criminality to justify punitive immigration policies (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
How Hispanics Will Unintentionally Bring About Significant Shifts in Healthcare
How will Texas, with 38% of Hispanics uninsured, and California, with 29% of Hispanics uninsured, handle the coming influx of Hispanic healthcare consumers? Truth is — no one really knows. The impact, however, will be enormous, and the system is not ready to handle it.
When the federal health care law is enacted in 2014, demand for services will dramatically increase. To meet the new demand, adequate supply must be available to avoid significant bottlenecks (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Palmer Trade shows a Distinct Hue
Like a lot of team personnel around the NFL, I am still buzzing about the king’s ransom paid to the Cincinnati Bengals by the Oakland Raiders to obtain the services of Carson Palmer, a player who was retired a week ago.
Short vs. Long Term Interests
Raiders head coach Hue Jackson has fingerprints all over this trade, from knowing Palmer in the past to pushing through a transaction all about the present and throws caution to the wind about the future.
The Raiders lack a general manager and that was apparent. A general manager’s role is to protect not only the immediate interests of the team but also its future and prospects for sustained success (continue reading…)
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Oct
21
Schools Should Embrace Difference in Pupils to Encourage Success
A key skill I think you should pick up early on in life is that everyone is different. Would I say that is something that I learnt at school? Probably not, to be honest. In fact, I might go as far as to say that when I was at school I felt the teachers didn’t recognise that actually I might not be the same as my peers.
I remember questioning why my Food Technology GCSE grade relied on 60% of marks coming from written coursework, rather than learning to actually cook. My teacher simply said that if I didn’t pass my GSCE I would fail in life.. (continue reading…)
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