Beyond Google

With 8 BILLION web pages indexed Google is good for basic information but if you are doing serious research you need to do some deep webbing.

Estimated 500 times more information is available on line hidden in databases and other repositories that can't be indexed with search engines like Google. To start investigating the
invisible web here are some handy links.

Free Beer

with every adoption of a worthless cat.

Happy Halloween

This Week's Career Profile

The first in a series of potential career profiles, the job requirments, working conditions and what you can expect to earn.

This week Stphen Levitt the author of Freakonomics will entertain you with a very insightful look at your employment potential on becoming an inner city Drug Dealer.

Congress May Have Banned Gambling

but you can still gamble on congress at Tradesports.com . Have to love the irony.

Never Too Early To Hate Your Mother

If your new baby is crying and agitated you can change the diaper or take it to an infant psychiatrist: Sending Baby To The Shrink: Infant psychotherapy gains favor among parents

Who Would Have Thunk It

Recently there has been discussion on the teaching of various languages. Seems everyone has missed out on the facts, schools should be teaching Portuguese.

More people speak Portuguese as their native language than French, German,
Italian or Japanese. So it can rankle the 230 million Portuguese speakers that
the rest of the world often views their mother tongue as a minor language and
that their novelists, poets and songwriters tend to be overlooked.

...

Spanish-speakers have sometimes jokingly dismissed Portuguese as simply “Spanish, badly spoken.” But because of Brazil’s huge size and dynamic economy, cities like Buenos Aires and Santiago, in neighboring countries, are now awash in fliers and billboards offering Portuguese language courses.

“For 850 years, our neighbors next door have been saying that there is no future for Portuguese,” said Mr. Soares, of the community, referring to Spain. “But here we are, still. The dynamic for the language may come from Brazil, but there is no doubt in my mind that Portuguese as a language will remain viable.”

Article

More Guns Safer Schools

The administration is supposed to give the board a review of security precautions in the district in the near future. Betcha this isn't one of them

According to John R. Lott, Jr., Ph.D. economist and author of More Guns, Less Crime and The Bias Against Guns, banning guns might seem to be the logical way to keep children safe in school. However, he uses a simple analogy:

Would you feel safe putting a sign in front of your home saying, "This home is a gun-free zone"? Law-abiding citizens might be pleased by such a sign, but to criminals it would be an invitation.

Voting Information

can be found at VotesPA.com. Even has video to show you how to operate the machines.

Field Hockey

Brandywine wins 1 - 0 against somebody in the division playoffs. Think it was field hockey because it was cold enough to be the ice version

Being Great Sounds Like Too Much Effort

What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.

Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful.

Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great. More

This article is just so wrong, too much work and you can't blame your parents for your failures. If this view point becomes widespread could a horrible effect on people's self-esteem.

Related Article in Scientific America

Name Change On PA Ballot

FYI

"Sen. Rick Santorum, R-PA, trailing in the polls behind Democrat Bob Casey, Jr., the son of a popular former Pennsylvania governor, will attempt to beat his opponent at his own game by changing his name to George Washington Jr.'

...

"A spokesman for the Casey campaign said 'this just demonstrates Santorum’s desperation. Rick Santorum has nothing to run on but his record, his conservative credentials, his proven work ethic, his in-depth knowledge of the Senate and his sharp intellect. ' ” More

Sounds Like A Saturday Night Live Skit

When one side needs to be punished and the other side doesn't need rewarding, the best option appears not to vote at all. Shouldn't not voting be just as much a right as voting, especially when it only seems to encourage them? Then Nancy Paloski who could become the 2nd in line to the Presidency opens her mouth.

"I think the fact that I am a woman will raise expectations in terms of more hope in government, and I will not disappoint...The gavel of the speaker of the House is in the hands of special interests, and now it will be in the hands of America's children."

Most days it already appears that way.

Now No Fun In Science

Last week it was No Fun At Recess now schools are trying to remove actual experiments in science classes. More and more schools are replacing lab equipment with virtual simulations and videos. No need to use a scalpel to dissect a mouse when students can just click their computer mouse to investigate the inner workings of the rodent. Part of the reason is cost and it does make it possible for students to investigate topics that would be far too expensive using real equipment. Other reasons are the nannies among us that want to remove even the remote chance that some child somewhere, somehow might be hurt, along with the government over reaching in due to the war on drugs and terrorism. Even the staple of would be scientist the basic chemistry set has become difficult to obtain and the future of model rockets is looking dismal. We would all be safer, smarter and freer if instead lawyers were not allowed to create laws. What a job creation racket that is.

What would spark the flame of a future scientist a video or lecture on the explosive powers of dust particles or watching your science teacher create a fire ball using powdered milk?

Intel cofounder Gordon Moore set off his first boom in Silicon Valley two decades before pioneering the design of the integrated circuit. One afternoon in 1940, near the spot where Interstate 280 intersects Sand Hill Road today, the future father of the semiconductor industry knelt beside a cache of homemade dynamite and lit the fuse. He was 11 years old.

Today he and his parents would either be arrested, put in therapy or both.

The Dismal Science Explaned By Aliens

At least until the parents shelling out the tution find out the University of North Carolina at Greensboro microeconomics class is being taught solely by the use of a video game.

"This is a game in which the students are literally immersed in a story. And they take on the role of a character," he explains. "So all of the reading material, all of the content, all of the examinations and homework, if you will, are built inside the engine of the game."

In his microeconomics game, a robot acts like a tutor. As the game goes on, the characters talk more and more like economists.

Kurt Squire, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that educational games got a bad rap in the 1980s, when the first games seemed to be no more than boring, high-tech flashcards. But over the years, he says, game designers have developed much better programming tools.
"That has made an action game, a 3D action game for learning, actually commercially viable," Squire says.

The Federation of American Scientist has recently issued a report declaring that gaming can redefine education

The next step is to compare traditionally taught students to those taught by a virtual green space alien. From NPR

In a related story Congress is now investigating Online Commerce in games like Second Life and World of Warcraft.

Studies of game activity suggest the time and effort put into these online worlds has an economic impact equivalent to the GDP of Namibia. Players of online fantasy games such as World of Warcraft know that much of the game revolves around looting of dead monsters and selling the booty. Cash generated by the sales is usually used to improve the gear worn and used by that player’s in-game avatar. Some players of these games have amassed huge fortunes of game currency by exploiting the quirks of the virtual world’s monetary and trade systems. There are reports that many people in nations such as China earn their entire salary by “gold-farming” in which they play the game solely to get gold which is then sold for real world money.

The JEC statement said: “Clearly, virtual economies represent an area where technology has outpaced the law. The goal of the forthcoming JEC study is to help lawmakers understand the issues involved and head off any premature attempt to impose a tax on virtual economies.

That the government would never thinking of taxing a virtual economy should go without saying.

Friday Night Lights In Oley By 2010

By Erin Negley Reading Eagle

Football fans in the Oley Valley School District no longer have to travel far to watch a game.
A new youth league has started on the field behind Oley Valley Middle School. And the pint-sized players could be the beginning of something bigger.

Volunteers hope to see a school district-supported junior high team next year, and a high school varsity team by the 2010-11 school year.

The group, called the Oley Valley Football Alliance, will present its plan to the school board Nov. 8. The alliance hopes to have $41,000 in startup costs by the meeting, alliance President Andy Gruber said.

Oley Valley is one of four Berks County public school districts without a football program. Antietam, Brandywine Heights and Tulpehocken are the others.

Gruber started the football alliance in January. More than 120 children are playing in the youth program, and 51 cheerleaders signed up. The teams compete in the Berks Inter-County Youth League.

The alliance doesn't see a reason to hold off asking for a district football program.
“We have a bunch of kids who are aging out of the (youth) program,” Gruber said. “We'd be giving these kids an opportunity to play a sport they want to play.”
High school students are talking about the possibility all the time, even if they graduate before the team is created, said Lauren R. Kanaskie, junior class president.
“I think, personally, it would be really cool,” she said. “If you look at other schools with football, they have so much school spirit.”
Adding a football team, however, would take some students away from other activities, which would be a drawback to the band and the soccer team, Kanaskie said.
Athletic Director Philip Matilla said he couldn't comment on the possibility of a football team.
Gruber estimated that it would cost $168,000 to fund junior high, junior varsity and varsity programs over the first four years. That figure includes equipment, salaries, insurance and transportation. It doesn't include weight room expenses.
The football alliance plans to pay $96,000 of the initial cost, Gruber said.
Since January, the group has raised $54,000 through fundraisers, sponsorships and registration fees for the youth league. Most of the money has gone back into the youth program, Gruber said.
Aside from raising funds, the alliance has to convince at least five of the nine school board members to support the program

New Type of Child Theme Park

Kidzania currently in Mexico and Japan the park is divided up like a city, where kids can explore adult professions. Looks like a fun place, especially if you click the English version. The Japanese version was a bit hard to understand.

Confidence Trap

Bears repeating pursue excellence and self-esteem will take care of itself.

WASHINGTON - It is difficult to get through a day in an American school without hearing maxims such as these: "To succeed, you must believe in yourself," and "To teach, you must relate the subject to the lives of students."

But the Brookings Institution is reporting this week that countries such as the United States that embrace self-esteem, joy and real-world relevance in learning mathematics are lagging behind others that do not promote all that self-regard. More

They Don't Make Speeches Like This Anymore

Now if Lynn Swann wants to make a comeback win late in the 4th quarter over Gov. Corleone needs to come out with similar speech

Oliver Cromwell upon dissolving the Rump Parliment in 1653.

"It is high time for Me to put an End to your Sitting in this Place, which you have dishonoured by your Contempt of all Virtue, and defiled by your Practice of every Vice;

Ye are a factious Crew and Enemies of all good Government; Ye are a Pack of mercenary Wretches and would, like Esau, Sell your Country for a Mess of Pottage; and like Judas, betray your God for a few Pieces of Money; Is there a single Virtue now remaining amongst you?

Is there one Vice that you do not possess? Ye have no more Religion than my horse! Gold is your God: Which of you have not bartered your Conscience for Bribes?

Is there a Man amongst you that has the least care for the Good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes! Have you not defiled this Sacred Place, and turned the Lord's Temple into a Den of Thieves by your immoral Principles and wicked Practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole Nation.

Your Country therefore calls upon me to cleanse the Augean Stable, by putting a final Period to your Iniquitous Proceedings in this House, and which by God's Help, and the strength He has given Me, I now come to do.

I command ye, therefore, upon the Peril of your Lives, to depart immediately out of this Place;

Go! Get out! Make haste, ye Venal Slaves, begone!"

Welcome To Bubble Kid School

Always discussion about 5th graders and recess. If the following is the trend why bother


ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) - Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.
Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban. More

Mindless Meals

Long been common wisdom to fool your mind that you are full is to use a smaller plate. NY Times article on with hard evidence that it is true with real numbers along with other mind tricks. Not really surprising but in groups of 4 to 8 people who eat less then normal will eat more and those that eat more then is really required eat less. So if schools paired up anoxeric teens with overweight ones at the lunch table could have more benefit then all the dietary mandates. Of course it could backfire with the standard "If you are not going to eat that pass it over." The good Doctor. did say he had problems with his male college student subjects "They all just eat like animals"

Broken Mirrors: A Theory of Autism

When human and other primates do a simple task like reach for an apple a pathway in the brain is fired. Also in healthy primates there is another pathway that is fired when this task is observed. someone else doing this task. People suffering from autism these mirror pathways seem to be missing.

"The chief diagnostic signs of autism are social isolation, lack of eye contact, poor language capacity and absence of empathy, other less well known symptoms are commonly evident. Many people with autism have problems understanding metaphors, sometimes interpreting them literally. They also have difficulty miming other people's actions. Often they display an eccentric preoccupation with trifles yet ignore important aspects of their environment, especially their social surroundings. Equally puzzling is the fact that they frequently show an extreme aversion to certain sounds that, for no obvious reason, set off alarm bells in their minds."

Broken Mirrors is a very interesting article on a new theory for autism that shows a reason for these symptoms and could be useful in further research on understanding the ultimate cause of autism.

The Graceful Taunt

There are two people that post on the internet. 1) The brillant insightful people that agree with you and 2) The people whose wheel is spinning long after their hampster died. Those if they had another brain it would be lonely, people whose cornbread isn't done in the middle, in other words people you disagree with.

You are not going to convince people that they have a bad idea or reach an understanding by calling them names. However this is the internet and you can't expect too much from a media built on the porn industry. We have done the Shakespearan and Latin insults here are some graceful taunts which trial lawyer Louis Nizer said were worth a thousand insults. which may inspire you.

...To wit, from high culture, Mark Twain: "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." Winston Churchill: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." And from pop culture, Groucho Marx: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." Scientists are no slouches when it comes to pitching invectives at colleagues. Achieving almost canonical status as the ne plus ultra put-down is theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli's reported harsh critique of a paper: "This isn't right. It's not even wrong." I call this Pauli's proverb.

From an article Wronger Than Wrong on why men may be created equal wrong scientific theories aren't

If The Unthinkable Ever Happens

Top 29 Things To Do When Your ISP Is Down
1 Open the curtains to see if anything has changed over the past 2 years.
2 Re-introduce yourself to your immediate family.
3 You mean there's something else to do?
4 Get that kidney transplant you've been putting off.
5 Find a better ISP
6 Play single player mode
7 Steal WiFi from your Neighbor
8 Run in circles, screaming hysterically about the end of the world.
9 Slit your wrists with broken AOL trial disks
10 Write your list on paper.

11-29

If The Unthinkable Ever Happens

Top 29 Things To Do When Your ISP Is Down
1 Open the curtains to see if anything has changed over the past 2 years.
2 Re-introduce yourself to your immediate family.
3 You mean there's something else to do?
4 Get that kidney transplant you've been putting off.
5 Find a better ISP
6 Play single player mode
7 Steal WiFi from your Neighbor
8 Run in circles, screaming hysterically about the end of the world.
9 Slit your wrists with broken AOL trial disks
10 Write your list on paper.

'>Eleven thru Twenty-nine.

Finally A Good Idea From Washington

October 15, 2006
GOP Congress Moves National Election Date to March
by Scott Ott
(2006-10-15) — With polls showing that Republicans could lose their majority in Congress in November, the GOP-controlled House and Senate yesterday voted to move the national date for Congressional elections to March 15, 2007.

“The November date, we felt, was setting an unreasonable timeline,” said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL. “With elections in March, we’ll have time to get out the Republican message of small government, lean budgets, strong borders, and aggressive action against terrorists and governments who harbor them.”

Rep. Hastert said it would also give the Republicans time to actually reduce the size and influence of the federal government, cut the budget and to secure the borders.

And A Bad Idea

The feds have sent a clear message that gambling is bad with new regulations for banks dealing with internet gambling sites. This put an unknown number of developers, database administrators and bank clerks out of work.

You may not have seen the news on TV because it is cluttered with ads for the state lottery or announcing the winners of the latest lottery or the governor lowering everyone taxes based on casino gambling.

People who participate in state run gambling do not do it out of greed but they throw away the rent money for the sake of the children. So gambling is bad if private companies profit but good if government profits.

What Your Gov't Doesn't Want You To Know

As the next election draws near there is one question that is never asked people who aspire to leadership, their stand on Dihydrogen Monoxide.

" Research conducted by award-winning U.S. scientist Nathan Zohner
concluded that roughly 86 percent of the population supports a ban on
dihydrogen monoxide. Although his results are preliminary, Zohner
believes people need to pay closer attention to the information presented to
them regarding Dihydrogen Monoxide. He adds that if more people knew the truth
about DHMO then studies like the one he conducted would not be necessary."

You won't hear the question asked because the corporate owners of newspapers, radio and TV are all involved with its use. It has been left to internet bloggers to get the word out.

"Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical
compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide,
Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the unstable radical
Hydroxide, the components of which are found in a number of caustic,
explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, itroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol."

We should be concerned because local industries use DHMO including Deka and it is constantly being transported by both train and trucks near our schools. For more information see the FAQ sheet.

In interest of fairness and balance the industry the big business based lobby group has a biased information page claiming the product to be relatively harmless.

Get In Shape

The following regime from the Navy Seals should get you into reasonable shape.

INITIAL QUALIFYING FIRST PHASE
50 meter underwater swim PASS/FAIL
Underwater knot tying PASS/FAIL
Drown proofing test PASS/FAIL Basic
Lifesaving test PASS/FAIL
1200 meter pool swim with fins 45 min
1 mile bay swim with fins
50 min 1 mile ocean swim with fins
50 min 1 l/2 mile ocean swim with fins
70 min 2 mile ocean swim with fins 95 min
Obstacle course 15 min 4 mile timed run 32 min

POST HELL WEEK

Please Don't Try This At Home

This article is about the Rottenberg Center in MA a special needs school in Canton, Massachusetts serving both higher-functioning students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems and lower-functioning students with autistic-like behaviors. However it has a rather unique approach to help the hopeless.

The only thing that sets these students apart from kids at any other school
in America?aside from their special-ed designation?is the electric wires running
from their backpacks to their wrists. Each wire connects to a
silver-dollar-sized metal disk strapped with a cloth band to the student's
wrist, forearm, abdomen, thigh, or foot. Inside each student's backpack is a
battery and a generator, both about the size of a VHS cassette. Each generator
is uniquely coded to a single keychain transmitter kept in a clear plastic box
labeled with the student's name. Staff members dressed neatly in ties and green
aprons keep the boxes hooked to their belts, and their eyes trained on the
students' behavior. They stand ready, if they witness a behavior they've been
told to target, to flip open the box, press the button, and deliver a painful
two-second electrical shock into the student at the end of the wire.

This is one article why it is long should be printed out and read in full.

Fall Fiction

Since it is getting a little nippy out start a fire and read one of Slates overlooked fiction list from bloggers and booksellers

Those Naughty Greeks

NY Times Article concerning a teacher suspended because she took her students to an art museum where they saw boobies and wee wees.

Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child’s parent complained, the teacher was suspended.
Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and “bashed.”

She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: “During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations.” It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged.

Or Was It Because She Wore The Devil's Shoes
In the May 18 memorandum to Ms. McGee, Ms. Lawson faulted her for not displaying enough student art and for “wearing flip-flops” to work; Ms. McGee said she was wearing Via Spiga brand sandals. In citing the students’ exposure to nude art, Ms. Lawson also said “time was not used wisely for learning during the trip,” adding that parents and teachers had complained and that Ms. McGee should have toured the route by herself first. But Ms. McGee said she did exactly that.

“This is not about a field trip to a museum,” the principal and superintendent told parents in their e-mail message Wednesday, citing “performance concerns” and other criticisms of Ms. McGee’s work, which she disputes. “The timing of circumstances has allowed the teacher to wave that banner and it has played well in the media,” they wrote.

They took issue with Ms. McGee’s planning of the outing. “No teacher’s job status, however, would be jeopardized based on students’ incidental viewing of nude art,” they wrote

Isn't Anywhere Safe

6 Said Killed in Amish School Shooting

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - The county coroner says at least six people were killed in a shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse, where state police said earlier a gunman killed "a number" of people Monday in Pennsylvania's bucolic Lancaster County.
"So far six confirmed dead and the helicopters are pulling into (Lancaster General Hospital) like crazy," Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner said.
It was unclear if the shooter was among the six. State police Cpl. Ralph Striebig had said earlier the shooter was among the dead, and a number of people were injured.
"There are a number of people dead," Striebig said. "The exact number I do not know yet."
Police surrounded the one-room school late Monday morning, and the Lancaster County 911 Web site reported that dozens of emergency units were dispatched to a "medical emergency" at 10:45 a.m.
Two hours later, about three dozen people in traditional Amish clothing, hats and bonnets stood near the small school building speaking to one another, several young people and authorities. At least two ambulances had left the scene, and at least one person was taken on a stretcher to a medical helicopter.
Officials at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center confirmed that victims were being admitted there. A spokeswoman said the hospital anticipated more than one patient, but did not know how many.

U.S. Math Team Places 5th

in the International Math Olympiad, held this summer in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The U.S.A. team came in 5th among the 90 participating countries. Top honors went to the usual suspects People’s Republic of China (214 points), Russia (174), Korea (170), and Germany (157). members are: Zachary Abel (Dallas, Tex.), Zarathustra Brady (Van Nuys, Calif.), Ryan Ko (Allendale, N.J.), Yi Sun (Saratoga, Calif.), Arnav Tripathy (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Alex Zhai (Champaign, Ill.).

U.S. Math Team Places 5th

Seems Like A Plan

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A City Council member, reacting to a video store holdup believed to have been carried out by children, says parents who can't properly care for their kids should be sterilized.

"We pick up stray animals and spay them," Larry Shirley said in a story published Saturday by The Post and Courier of Charleston. "These mothers need to be spayed if they can't take care of theirs. Once they have a child and it's running the street, to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable."

Shirley's comments come after police say a video store was held up by a group of children, including a 14-year-old girl suspected of wielding a BB gun that looked like a pistol.

"What we've got is a failure in society, whether it's in Mount Pleasant with yuppie parents or whether it's on the East Side with poor crackhead parents," he said, referring to areas in and around Charleston.

State Sen. Robert Ford, a Charleston Democrat, agreed that the crime highlights a societal problem but dismissed Shirley's suggestion to sterilize people as "crazy."

"What Larry Shirley needs to talk about is getting City Council to provide some recreational facilities and activities for these kids and creating an atmosphere conducive to a normal society," said Ford, also a former councilman