Failure of Public Education

The failure of public education shows up when elected officials make idiotic statements like the following.

Florida state rep Arthenia Joyner a little earlier at the DNC confab in D.C.: 'the candidates didn't come to Florida so we could ask them how they can make our lives better.

Dear Rep Joyner
They are running for President of the United States of America not Santa Claus. Try to remember what Democrat (before it became the Free Stuff Party) John Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for you." They are supposed to protect and defend the Constitution so you can make your own life better.

Shouldn't have assumed she is a product of public education, private schools aren't any better in this regards.

Not Really One In Four

Remember the headlines that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Well after closer examination by experts other than the ones that sell the latest scare those statistics appear to be far off any reality based analysis.

Perhaps most critical, the CDC’s March 11 news conference, and the materials distributed there, failed to put the numbers into historical context. Other CDC research shows that infection rates for most serious sexual diseases, including syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid, are sharply below 1990 levels—syphilis reached a historic low in 2000. The CDC’s tests showed that none of the 18- and 19-year-old women in the study were infected with HIV or syphilis, but officials did not mention this success in the press release. Teenagers’ exposure to STDs has also dropped because their sexual activity declined from 1998 to 2002. The decline was 20 percent among girls, and 40 percent among boys, according to the CDC report, “Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing, 2002,” last updated in March 2006.

Brandywine Community Library's ANNUAL USED BOOKSALE

Brandywine Community Library's ANNUAL USED BOOKSALE - Friday, May 30th, 3-9pm & Saturday, May 31st, 9am-4pm. Held at the Longswamp Township Park , Mertztown, this year's sale will be in the pavilion closest to State Street, near the playground.

The used book storage area is bursting at its seams with this year's donations, so please plan to come take some of the book's off our hands. All book sale proceeds are used to support Brandywine Community Library programs for which there is no other funding.

Hardcover, paperback, large print, movies(VHS), books on tape, music CD's, children's books, puzzles.

Books On Dead Trees Aren't Dead Yet

UTICA, New York - Despite the growing availability of other formats for reading-such as online or with an e-book reader or PDA— the vast majority of readers still like to read the old-fashioned way - 82% said they prefer to curl up with a printed book over using the latest in reading technology, a new Random House/Zogby poll shows. Women (85%) are more likely than men (79%) to say they prefer reading printed books. Reading printed books also has greater appeal among older respondents, although it is by far the preferred method among all age groups.

Just 11% of respondents said they are comfortable reading books in other formats, such as online or with an e-book reader or PDA. Men (13%) are more open than women (8%) to reading books in other formats, as are 13% of those younger than age 30, compared to just 6% of those age 65 and older.

Try out a book in your favorite medium today Don't cost nutin'

Presidental Politics

Senator Clinton once called for a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with Senator Obama. Now recent comments suggest she would actually prefer a Burr-Hamilton style debate (link for US History impaired). Who needs talking head on CNN or Fox when you have these guys.



Or
YouTube Direct.

Education In China

In 1996 China had less than 1 million freshmen, in 2006 there were over 5 million freshmen. About half of the entering students are in a hard science or engineering program. As a result, China today produces 3 times more engineers than the United States and will quickly overtake the U.S. in total graduates.

China's education system is being transformed to a considerable degree by private forces. As late as 1999 the Chinese government paid for most university education but from 2001 onwards tuition and fees account for more than half of total educational expenditures.

Still the worse threat to world stability is all these engineers are going to graduate run then numbers and discover due to government policies of one child families combined with long tradition of male child there won't be enough hot chicks to go around. Current forecast show that by 2020 there will be 30 million highly educated and extremely irritable young men.

Lies We Tell Kids

School Rules

Probably the biggest lie told in schools, though, is that the way to succeed is through following "the rules." In fact most such rules are just hacks to manage large groups efficiently.

On Teenagers Lies

If you freak out when people tell you alarming things, they won't tell you them. Teenagers don't tell their parents what happened that night they were supposed to be staying at a friend's house for the same reason parents don't tell 5 year olds the truth about the Thanksgiving turkey. They'd freak if they knew.

On Sex And Drugs

If parents told their kids the truth about sex and drugs, it would be: the reason you should avoid these things is that you have lousy judgement. People with twice your experience still get burned by them. But this may be one of those cases where the truth wouldn't be convincing, because one of the symptoms of bad judgement is believing you have good judgement. When you're too weak to lift something, you can tell, but when you're making a decision impetuously, you're all the more sure of it.

On Innocence

Innocence is also open-mindedness. We want kids to be innocent so they can continue to learn. Paradoxical as it sounds, there are some kinds of knowledge that get in the way of other kinds of knowledge. If you're going to learn that the world is a brutal place full of people trying to take advantage of one another, you're better off learning it last. Otherwise you won't bother learning much more.

Very smart adults often seem unusually innocent, and I don't think this is a coincidence. I think they've deliberately avoided learning about certain things. Certainly I do. I used to think I wanted to know everything. Now I know I don't.

A thought provoking essay by Paul Graham

Saint Sam and the Sales Tax

Sales-tax revenue is expected to end up $42 million short of what was budgeted as cost for necessary items like fuel are escalating. That is one of the main problems with trying to run the schools on just sales tax revenue. Regardless of what Saint Rohrer preaches it is not a stable form of income. But what do you expect from someone who believes driver licenses are unconstitutional. You can take the boy out of Bob Jones U but you can't take the B.J.U out of the boy. I think it is only a rumor that at graduation they instead of wearing caps and gowns they were gowns and tin foil hats.

Super Bowl of Swine

Now the largest pork (as if there could be any other kind) barbeque contest is in progress and now has an international flavor.

The Norwegian team thought they were in good shape because all the team members spoke English but they didn't count on being in Memphis with its much more better flavor of the language.

Boone: "Anything else you're waiting for?"

Ounapuu: "Vood."

Boone: "Food?"

Ounapuu, pointing at the team's borrowed smoker: "Vood! Vood!"

Boone: "Oh, wood! Of course!"

Happy Geek Pride Day and Towel Day

Geek Pride Day is celebrated May 25th. The date coincides with the premiere of the first Star Wars movie in 1977.

It also coincides with Towel Day, which commemorates the death of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was first observed in 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on May 11, 2001. Adams considered a towel "the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have".

Every celebration needs to have music. For Geek Pride Day it has to be the all time favorite

I Will Derive

Can't Afford To Travel On Vacation This Summer

Just go to Wally World and buy supplies for a Staycation

How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart

Guess you could say she took one for the team.

She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs - her daughter, Rebecca, 38.

Should 0 = 50

At first it does seem like grade inflation but shouldn't every student have the possibility of redemption? If you score a 0 at the get-go what is the point of trying.

In most math problems, zero would never be confused with 50, but a handful of schools nationwide have set off an emotional academic debate by giving minimum scores of 50 for students who fail.

Officials in schools from Las Vegas to Dallas to Port Byron, N.Y., have proposed or implemented versions of such a policy, with varying results.

Their argument: Other letter grades — A, B, C and D — are broken down in increments of 10 from 60 to 100, but there is a 59-point spread between D and F, a gap that can often make it mathematically impossible for some failing students to ever catch up.

An example of how this would work can be found here. Talk amongst yourselves.

Quote For The Day

Computers are taking jobs away. We could guarantee full employment if we removed computers. When James Watt invented the Steam Engine, thousands of 10 year old boys who had been hauling coal carts were put out of work. However, this left them free to do other things, such as live to be 11.
- P.J. O'Rouke in Eat The Rich

U.S. Geography For $100

Obama on trailing in the KY polls.

"What it says is that I'm not very well known in that part of the country," Obama said. "Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it's not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle."

Would someone please show the Senator a map of the country he wants to govern. Illinois and Kentucky share a border, while Illinois and Arkansas don't. What happened to the press that had such a good laugh at Dan Quayle and his potatoe.

Voter Incentive

In order to increase voter participation, the Democrats and Republican party along with the League of Women Voters are giving away free T-shirts to all suckers voters this November.

Friday Special

Spiderman has nothing on this German street performer who clings to a building with only one hand. No its not photoshopped. spoiler on page 2.

THAT NOT FAIR

Every parent has heard that phrase at some point. P.J. O'Rourke in a commencement address he will never gives shows how they should be very grateful that life isn't fair.

Well, I am here to advocate for unfairness. I've got a 10-year-old at home. She's always saying, "That's not fair." When she says this, I say, "Honey, you're cute. That's not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That's not fair. You were born in America. That's not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you."

The Blond Map of Europe

Summer Movies

Since Ms Emily has been too busy studying to go to the movies the entertainment duties had to be outsourced. Works out because these guys are cheaper.

If You Could Read Kant

Advice comes a little late but there is always next year.

On Mother's Day, it's hard to get a brunch reservation; and on Father's Day, it's hard to get a tee time. So, just switch days and celebrate Father's Day in May and Mother's Day in June.

Interestingly, doing that violates Kant's Categorical Imperative, which is a sort of Teutonic philosopher's version of the Golden Rule ("Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law"). Yet, if everybody switched months, then we'd be right back where we started. But if you switch, then you're a lot better off and everybody else is a tiny bit better off.

Can U Read Kant

Wall Street Journal review of what looks like a clever title for a dumb book The Dumbest Generation. Wow a book on what wrong with them kids today.

Mr. Bauerlein presents a wealth of data to show that young people, with the aid of digital media, are intensely focusing on themselves, their peers and the present moment. YouTube and MySpace, he says, are revealingly named: These and other top Web destinations are "peer to peer" environments in the sense that their juvenile users have populated them with predictably juvenile content. The sites where students spend most of their time "harden adolescent styles and thoughts, amplifying the discourse of the lunchroom and keg party, not spreading the works of the Old Masters."

Actually that sounds like every generation, looking back how many of us in out teens spent time either with or thinking about our peers rather then reading the works of the Old Masters. The last line of the review did have a lot of truth to consider.

The new Amazon book reader may bring the best of predigital life forward into the present, and any number of institutions are (gradually) exploring ways to harness the new communications environment for scholarship, innovation and profit rather than idle enjoyment. In short, the children of future years will learn from their elders how to make the most of digital life just as soon as there are elders in place to offer instruction. The "elders" now don't seem to have a clue.

Orgainc Farming Myths

Interesting uncommon sense British article on the myths of hippie farming. Boils down to if it makes you feel better to spend more for organic go right ahead but you aren't doing the earth and the rest of humanity any favors

Myth four: Pesticide levels in conventional food are dangerous

The proponents of organic food – particularly celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, who have jumped on the organic bandwagon – say there is a "cocktail effect" of pesticides. Some point to an "epidemic of cancer". In fact, there is no epidemic of cancer. When age-standardised, cancer rates are falling dramatically and have been doing so for 50 years.

If there is a "cocktail effect" it would first show up in farmers, but they have among the lowest cancer rates of any group. Carcinogenic effects of pesticides could show up as stomach cancer, but stomach cancer rates have fallen faster than any other. Sixty years ago, all Britain's food was organic; we lived only until our early sixties, malnutrition and food poisoning were rife. Now, modern agriculture (including the careful use of well-tested chemicals) makes food cheap and safe and we live into our eighties.

Probably not a good day to ask the Rodale Institute if they want to put an ad on the site.

Latest In Prom Fashion

That is if you would rather go to jail than to the dance. What NOT to wear to the prom.

Global Warming Isn't All Bad

BBC Reports that Great tits cope well with warming

Happy Mother's Day

Even if compared to a real mom like the one in the following article you are a bunch of slackers. Do Your Part To Keep Rockland Open.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman - she's pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.

The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children - whose names start with the letter J - are home-schooled.

The other Duggar children, in between Joshua 20 and Jennifer 9 months, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 16; Jessa, 15; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 10; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 7; James, 6; Justin, 5; Jackson, 3; and Johannah, 2.

Why isn't it surprising that this is from Arkansas and the husband name is Jim Bob.

Super Model Math

Nice to know as Cindy Crawford jets around the world she cares enough to recycle her water bottle. She even teamed with the water treatment company PUR up to invent the reusable water bottle. They should branch out now and invent a reusable canteen. Never saw a western yet where the hero trapped in the desert and runs out of water didn't litter the delicate ecosystem with his dry canteen.

To emphasis the gravity of the problem Ms Crawford was able to do some quick math in her head.

According to Crawford and the “Thirsty for Change” Web site, Americans use 50 billion water bottles a year.

“Fifty billion in America and only 50 percent are recycled,” Crawford said. “So that’s like 38 billion that aren’t recycled.”

Senior Tats

Now Tattoos for the rest of us the To-Do Tattoo.

Rampant Homospheniscophobia Sweeps America

Americans Can't Stand To Read About Gay Penguins":

NEW YORK–A children's story about a family of penguins with two fathers once again tops the list of library books the American public objects to the most.

And Tango Makes Three, released in 2005 and co-written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, was the most "challenged" book in U.S. public schools and libraries for the second straight year, according to the American Library Association.

The Future of Internet Discussions

Seems even with genetic engineering human nature won't change. A small glance curtsy of the International Association of Time Travelers: Members' Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War. Has everything but Close Rockland.

Our Share Of The Pie

At the end of WW II in 1945, as the last man standing, the U.S. share of the World's GDP was around 50%. More

He Could Have Turned Them All Into Newts

After making a toothpick disappear and reappear, a Florida middle school substitute teacher is reprimanded for Wizardry.

"I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue. You can't take any more assignments. You need to come in right away.' I said, 'Well, Pat, can you explain this to me?' 'You've been accused of wizardry,'" Piculas explained.

Deadly Crash This Morning

State Police say a volunteer firefighter with the Topton Fire Company was killed in a motorcycle accident on State Street in Longswamp Township this morning. The accident happened in the 1100 block around 7:15. Authorities still haven't released the victim's name. Police say the cyclist was driving at a high rate of speed when he clipped the back of a pick-up truck turning into Longswamp Elementary School and lost control of the bike. He died at the scene. The motorcycle kept going until it struck a car. Police say neither the two teenagers in the car nor the driver of the pick-up truck was injured. Police say firefighters from Topton originally responded to the scene but were sent back to their station after learning that the victim was one of their colleagues. Firefighters from Kutztown relieved them. Police are not yet releasing the victim's name.

Longswamp students were dropped off at the township building and escorted to school by their teachers so they couldn't see the accident scene. Township Supervisor. Fire police said it will be noon or later until the investigation is complete.

Moving Windmills

A short video of a 14 year old African boy from Malawi successfully built a windmill to bring electricity to his home in a remote village. He built the windmill using only a few library books and scrap metal. He was forced to leave school 5 years earlier when his family couldn't afford the $80.00 school fee.

The Future Is Now

Who says the ACLU doesn't have a sense of humor great view of things to come in the Nanny State.

Educational Romanticism - New Criterion

Educational romanticism characterizes reformers of both Left and Right, though in different ways. Educational romantics of the Left focus on race, class, and gender. It is children of color, children of poor parents, and girls whose performance is artificially depressed, and their academic achievement will blossom as soon as they are liberated from the racism, classism, and sexism embedded in American education. Those of the Right see public education as an ineffectual monopoly, and think that educational achievement will blossom when school choice liberates children from politically correct curricula and obdurate teachers’ unions.
...

Many laws are too optimistic, but the No Child Left Behind Act transcended optimism. It set a goal that was devoid of any contact with reality.

The first strand in explaining educational romanticism is a mythic image of the good old days when teachers brooked no nonsense and all the children learned their three R’s. You have probably run across tokens of it in occasional editorials that quote examination questions once asked of public schools students. Here is an example that The Wall Street Journal gave from the admissions test to Jersey City High School in 1885: “Write a sentence containing a noun as an attribute, a verb in the perfect tense potential mood, and a proper adjective.” Or consider the McGuffey Readers that were standard textbooks in the nineteenth century, filled with literary selections far more difficult than the ones given to today’s students at equivalent ages. That’s the kind of material all children routinely learned, right?

Wrong. American schools have never been able to teach everyone how to read, write, and do arithmetic. The myth that they could has arisen because schools a hundred years ago did not have to educate the least able. When the twentieth century began, about a quarter of all adults had not reached fifth grade and half had not reached eighth grade. The relationship between school dropout and intellectual ability was not perfect, but it was strong. Today’s elementary and middle schools are dealing with 99 percent of all children in the eligible age groups. Let today’s schools not report the test results for the children that schools in 1900 did not have to teach, and NAEP scores would go through the roof.

...

For now, it is enough to recognize that educational romanticism asks too much from students at the bottom of the intellectual pile, asks the wrong things from those in the middle, and asks too little from those at the top. It short-changes all of them.

Golly Gee Batman Its Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free* to anyone who comes into their stores. Each retailer will decide the guidelines for receiving comics.

The site has a locater function that allows you to find participating stores in the area. The local library is also participating while supples last.

Get there early or you could be stuck with Aquaman.

For Your Weekend Entertainment

The Empire Strikes Barack

Results Of the Tax On People Bad At Math

The Department of Education released the amount qualifed home owners will have deducted from their tax bills due to gambling revenues. The ranges was $408 for the Reading Dist to $111 in Gov. Mifflin. Brandywine residents came in at $227.

District	Reduction	Properties	Relief
Antietam	$458,061	1,938	$236
Boyertown	$1.78 million	11,238	$159
Brandywine	$784,735	3,450	$227
Conrad Weiser	$1.02 million	4,881	$208
Daniel Boone	$1.19 million	5,002	$238
Exeter	$1.36 million	6,941	$196
Fleetwood	$1.12 million	4,189	$268
Gov. Mifflin	$870,742	7,872	$111
Hamburg	$829,183	4,636	$179
Kutztown	$612,369	3,342	$183
Muhlenberg	$1.20 million	6,213	$193
Oley Valley	$630,055	3,764	$167
Reading	$3.67 million	9,001	$408
Schuylkill Valley	$587,919	3,725	$158
Tulpehocken	$644,348	3,065	$210
Twin Valley	$1.02 million	5,647	$181
Wilson	$1.38 million	9,409	$147
Wyomissing	$484,917	2,941	$165

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Education

So You Want To Be Green

The Top Ten Things Environmentalists Need to Learn

Feel Your Pain

After watching Senator Clinton struggle with the coffee machine is almost enough to consider changing candidates.



Hard to imagine going around all day with a cameras trained on you. No wonder we have the Presidents and candidates we do. They are all crazy as a Betsy Bug after the ordeal of campaigning.

Don't Throw Your Coats Away Just Yet

From the IPCC (International Politicized Careerists & Controlfreaks) Global Warming will take a ten year holiday. Seems that according to their new computer model naturally occurring trends in ocean currents outweigh man's carbon footprint.