Speaking of Big Brother….why on Earth do they feel the need to encroach on nature with technology?? What about people who don’t want to be subjected to the Electro-magnetic waves? Do they not get a voice in this?
Author Archives
Adrienne Hill: A Day in the Life of a Data-Mined Kid
…again, follow the money. Schools are now Big Business, with a side order of Big Brother…
Did you know that your child is constantly data mined? Adrienne Hill writes about how extensively most children are now tracked, usually without their parent’s knowledge or consent. The federal government has given states hundreds of millions of dollars to help build a giant database, called a “statewide longitudinal data system.”
Hill writes:
“The government isn’t the only one trying to figure out what’s working by investing in and gobbling up data about your kid.
“Sales of educational technology software for kids in kindergarten through high school reached nearly $8 billion last year, according to the Software and Information Industry Association.
“One of the biggest players is the field is Knewton. It analyzes student data that it collects by keeping track of nearly every click and keystroke your child makes during digital lessons.
“Jose Ferreira is Knewton’s CEO. In a video posted by the Department of Education, he says “We…
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Preventing Ebola, enterovirus….
Until yesterday, NOBODY from the CDC or other official agencies had stated what people could do to prevent contracting Ebola or Enterovirus.
Joy Reid, MSNBC, had a professor from Louisiana State University and he said we could simply prevent getting the disease by….drum roll please….washing our hands.
Radical, I know.
One has to wonder why the CDC and others would not repeatedly state this in order to give people the tools they need to protect themselves? The hysteria being created now warrants it.
Good old soap and water are your best bets against getting sick. Not hand sanitizer. I was taught at the Health Department that you should sing the “Happy Birthday” song in your head while washing your hands, for the proper amount of time. My Science journalism professor told us the reason for friction is that it is the way to kill the microbes, and the soap is what lifts it off the surface of the skin.
I found a pretty good video on proper handwashing:
Be well, my friends.
National Urban League, with Lots of Gates $$$, Supports Common Core
…follow the money….
Politico.com reported that the National Urban League is aggressively supporting Common Core. Politico neglected to mention that the National Urban League has received more than $5 million from the Gates Foundation in recent years. Anytime that any group advocates for the Common Core, publications should report whether they are funded by the Gates Foundation. The oversight is comparable to giving the results of a study showing that smoking does not cause cancer, yet failing to report that the study was funded by cigarette companies.
Here is the politico report:
“URBAN LEAGUE STEPS INTO CORE WARS: The National Urban League is stepping up its advocacy in support of the Common Core with new radio and TV spots narrated by CEO Marc H. Morial. In one ad, an African-American student flips through a textbook and imagines great possibilities for his life, as images flash by depicting him as a judge, a soldier…
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Gotta love humor against ignorance…
As always, I love when we can laugh while trying to make sense of the nonsensical.
From Carol A Hand’s blog on the Daily Show:
In the News Today…
The Daily Show did a good job with this. But I think one should be careful with the one-sixteenth Native blood thing–making fun of it for not being “Indian enough” is as bad as making fun of Natives for being “too Indian”. I think it matters more whether one observes, honors, and follows the traditional ways rather than how much Native blood they have.
And as I was reading this, I recalled my own schools’ mascots: One was Abe Lincoln (railsplitters), one was berries (there’s a reason for that, but risk of disclosing the town I grew up in forbids it); the bulldogs; and finally, one school was “warriors”…ironically, or not, it was named after Daniel Webster, and I can’t recall his history, but him fighting the Native Americans comes to mind.
Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart, Lost in the Barrens) once said (in Thunderheart) that when we were growing up, we played Cowboys and Indians…and he never wanted to be an Indian–he always wanted to be a cowboy.
Carol A. Hand
This attempt at humor made it into Huffington Post’s major news stream this morning. I’m curious to know what others think about it.
If you’re interested in my views, here’s an old post that describes what I think: https://carolahand.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/were-honoring-indians-2/
I look forward to your comments!
“We’re Honoring Indians!”
Wow. Just wow. Threatening her life over a mascot? Are you serious??
I admire you, Carol, for your courage and persistence. You were going up against people who are supposedly educated, and should know better…and yet still ignorant of Native American history and how our views have been shaped by the warped history we have been taught. And the history we have not been taught–such as Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards killing the indigenous and the smallpox inserted in blankets handed out to the tribes to kill them through bio warfare.
Carol A. Hand
More than two decades ago, when my daughter was a senior in high school, she received a commendation notice from her French teacher. This was not the first or last, but it was the one I noticed on a different level. I remember “seeing red” when I noticed the logo on the top, yet I immediately reflected on the message – my daughter had demonstrated excellent work. So I complemented her. Then, I contacted the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI) to explore what protections they had in place to prevent racial stereotyping of indigenous peoples. The response from WDPI changed my life.
At the time, I was working on a federal grant to address elder abuse in eight pilot counties in Wisconsin. In an effort to promote awareness about the project, I met with a reporter from a local paper. In the process of talking about…
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To those in China who hunger for democracy…
I think this is entirely appropriate for you:
Professors on Food Stamps? Yup.
What we’re told by the mainstream media…and the reality of it all. Quite the gap between castles in the sky and life on Earth…
One way to see that this country is screwed up is to realize that an adjunct professorship doesn’t even pay minimum wage. In other words, a lot of college professors are on food stamps.
This article is not about the handful of mega-celebrity professors who earn millions from speaking gigs or business ventures.
We are talking about adjunct professors (not ‘assistant’ or ‘full’ professors) who teach a single college course for one to three grand per semester per course, with no benefits at all. It’s not unusual for such a professor to earn less than they would earn at the minimum wage (I calculate $7.50/hr x 40 hrs/wk x 50 wks/ year = $15,000. Obviously people who have adjunct or minimum wage jobs will earn varying number of hours per week, and varying number of weeks, so this is just a single comparison pont)
Don’t forget that the adjunct prof…
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Eagle 