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Inside Hoboken’s combined junior-senior high school is a storage closet. Behind the locked door, some mothballed laptop computers are strewn among brown cardboard boxes. Others are stacked one atop another. Dozens more are stored on mobile computer carts, many of them on their last legs. That’s all that remains from a failed experiment to assign every student a laptop at Hoboken Junior Senior High School. It began five years ago with an unexpected windfall of stimulus money from Washington, D.C., and good intentions to help the district’s students, the majority of whom are under or near the poverty line, keep...

Big thanks to Martin Archer for help with this episode. And thanks to Guy Larsen for his shadow magic.

I am planning to develop an online music instruction course which I intend to make available online to paying subscribers. The content will be a combination of text, narration, videos/visual images with and without animation, and music audio tracks which will synch with the video/visual imagery. I will not be using videos of myself in the course material. When I first got the idea for this series of lessons, I was thinking in terms of making and selling it as a DVD, but now I think that idea is obsolete. Ideally, a user should only need a laptop or tablet...

Very interesting and informative talk and video presentation on how to learn basic Chinese characters.................

If there is one nightmare common to all U.S. senators, it’s the possibility of an unexpected upset by an underdog challenger come Election Day. Not only do they lose their seat, but the shock of defeat becomes one of the most notable parts of their biography. This November, no one wants to be the Senate’s Eric Cantor. For my money, one of the most jaw-dropping Senate results in modern history occurred exactly 50 years ago. It’s barely remembered even by the political community, but it shouldn’t be forgotten. This old race teaches enduring lessons about politics, and in 2014 we’ll...

In my columns, I often write about the swift moral decline within our nation's secular universities. That usually involves writing about corrupt university administrators. But I would be a hypocrite were I to ignore corruption by administrators at Christian colleges and universities. Right now, there is a controversy brewing at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee with moral ramifications that are simply too important to ignore. At the center of the controversy is Bryan's president Dr. Stephen Livesay. His conduct as Bryan's president has been so far outside the realm of normal professional conduct as to nearly defy description. Nonetheless, I...

Great movie on today, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 9 AM central time. "The Mortal Storm" with Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullivan, and Robert Young. Takes place in pre WWII Europe. An Austrian farmer (Jimmy Stewart) and a professor's daughter (Margaret Sullivan) flee Nazi Germany on skis. Shows what can happen when political correctness takes over a society. Great movie. Set you DVR before you go to work.

Leaked figures show the average student in Germany still takes around four years to complete a bachelor’s degree, suggesting controversial reforms to higher education have so far failed to cut down the number of Germany’s perpetual students. Reforms to reduce degree times have not yet cut down on numbers of so-called “Dauerstudenten”—eternal students who can take up to six years for their undergraduate degree before embarking on a lengthy master's course. Under the old German system, students were allowed to take semesters off to work, earn cash, travel, do work experience placements or study abroad. This led to lengthy degrees...

OUNT BLANCHARD, Ohio —The teacher that was accused of push and grabbing one of her students is expected to resign, according to the school’s superintendent. Barbara Williams has pleaded not guilty to a child endangerment charge.

CLARKSTOWN - A Clarkstown South High School teacher was arrested for allegedly exposing himself while driving on an upstate highway.

WATERLOO, Iowa — A former Waterloo teacher, and coach, has been accused of sexually abusing a student. Thirty-two-year-old Daniel Ankrum is charged with one count of sexual exploitation by a school employee.

A teacher, who is also a championship track and field coach, is charged with driving drunk with her young children in the car. The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office says they arrested Carolyn Garger after she hit a car and then crashed into a ditch. The children in her car were under 15-years-old. Because of that, she is charged with a felony under Leandra’s Law. The sheriff’s office says Garger hit another car on Route 20A, just outside the village of Geneseo and then ended up in the ditch a little further east. The three kids in her car were her...

NORTH SMITHFIELD – A North Smithfield Middle School teacher was arrested on Thursday, July 24 and has been accused of stealing nearly $7,000 from the School Department. Brian Chuey, 29, of Cranston has been charged with two counts of felony larceny after allegedly stealing $6,866, according to a release from the North Smithfield Police Department. He is being held pending an appearance before a Justice of the Peace.

FULL TITLE: Rutherford County School Teacher arrested for the second time on "Public Intoxication" charge in Murfreesboro A Rutherford County School teacher has been rearrested for a second time on similar charges. April Littlepage, age 40, was arrested at the Paddock Club Apartments swimming pool around 4:30 this past Friday afternoon.

An area teacher remained in jail on Monday facing drug charges after a weekend arrest.

For decades, the standard method for treating injuries was RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Everyone from Little League coaches to pro sports trainers knows icing is a sure way to reduce swelling, inflammation and pain, and speed healing. That has been the conventional wisdom. Now comes Gary Reinl, with 40 years of experience in sports, fitness, and rehab, with an iconoclastic message. In his self-published book ICED!, Reinl argues that icing is not only wrong - "an illusionary treatment" - but also counterproductive and harmful. "There's not a shred of evidence that icing is helpful," Reinl said. "To...

youtube link here as well

American kids and teenagers will be sharing their already-crowded classrooms with tens of thousands of ill-educated Central American migrants this fall, because President Obama is distributing perhaps 100,000 Central American migrants across the country. The Central American student “have very, very limited amounts of education [and] in some cases, they cannot count to 10,” said Caroline Woodason, assistant director for student support at the public schools in Dalton, Ga. “They can’t turn on a computer. They’ve never even seen a computer,” she told the Dalton Daily Citizen. In Fairfax, Va., “teachers [are] dealing with children not just learning English but...

A Pennsylvania couple charged with locking their 5-year-old son in the trunk of their moving car -- to cure his fear of darkness -- will spend two years on probation in a program for first-time offenders. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports 26-year-olds Jeffrey and Danielle Lenhart, of Latrobe, entered the program Thursday in Westmoreland County. The Lenharts weren't required to plead guilty to endangerment charges, and can ask the court to expunge their arrest records if they complete probation without incident. Police say the couple gave their son a flashlight and told him to look for candy in the trunk during...

A study released Monday at the conference shows that vulnerable communities in Nigeria fared far worse after legislation was passed criminalizing gay male sex. And in a panel scheduled for Wednesday , researchers were expected to discuss way to help advocates, doctors and patients combat stigma. The past year has seen both unprecedented advances in gay rights - with expanded marriage equality in the U.S. – and even more significant setbacks, with discriminatory laws passed in Nigeria and Uganda and Russia's president Vladimir Putin speaking out against gay rights, said Richard Parker, a professor of sociomedical sciences at the Mailman...

President Barack Obama may have been too busy to visit the U.S. southern border to witness the humanitarian crisis during his recent Texas trip, but he found time to hold a town hall meeting at the Walker Jones Education Center in Washington, D.C., to add 60 major public school districts to his signature My Brother's Keeper (Keeper) initiative on July 21. It's a program that launched in late February and was built on the achievement gap, a prime mover for education reformers. Its noble goal is to help the underserved, impoverished, and often-fatherless African American and Hispanic young men to...

A suspended Penn-Trafford High School teacher is accused of stalking a 17-year-old student by trying to meet the student at his workplace and repeatedly inviting him to events and restaurants. After trading messages online with Spanish teacher Michael David Garet and meeting the teacher during down times at school for a few months, the student decided Garet's attention was more than that of a concerned friend. That caused him to worry about his safety, according to a criminal complaint by Penn Township police.

Ohio State University fired marching band director Jonathan Waters yesterday after a two-month investigation found that band leaders ignored a “sexualized” culture among students and didn’t take sexual-harassment training as recommended. The firing came two weeks after OSU leaders told Waters he could keep the job if he enacted a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment, his attorney, David Axelrod, said yesterday. The firing was a surprise to Waters, Axelrod said. “Jonathan has not decided precisely what action he will take,” Axelrod said. “He intends to defend his good name in one way or another.” Ohio State fired Waters, 38, after...

The probe was prompted by the complaint of a parent, who said members must swear secrecy oaths "about objectionable traditions and customs," including members marching across the field in their underwear -- witnesses described it as the "Midnight Ramp" -- under the supervision of band directors and staff.

TRENTON — Fourteen men, including a Salem County man and two school bus drivers, have been charged in a child pornography sting, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced Thursday. "Operation Predator Alert," a joint operation by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and ICE Homeland Security Investigations, targeted offenders in New Jersey who used a file-sharing network to download and distribute child pornography, including child rape videos, on the Internet. A total of 28 defendants have been charged in two offender sweeps under Operation Predator Alert, including 14 prior arrests announced on Oct. 28, 2013.

LORAIN, Ohio — An elementary school teacher has been charged with possession of child pornography according to Steven M.Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Edward A. Dembiec, 53, of Lorain, Ohio, was charged Friday after a lengthy investigation that found Dembiec possessed the “criminal information on or about October 1, 2008, through May 5, 2013.”

A Middle Township High School teacher turned himself in to the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office on sex assault charges related to crimes against a minor student over the course of a year, Prosecutor Bob Taylor announced today. Joseph Towns, 34, of North Cape May was charged with sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal sexual contact, official misconduct, possession of child pornography and obscenity of persons under 18.

A substitute teacher was arrested for allegedly engaging in sex acts with a 16-year-old girl in a BMW in Hesperia early Sunday, officials said. The pair were discovered by a deputy checking on the black BMW, which authorities said appeared to be suspicious, parked near the intersection of Ivy Avenue and Alder Street. The teacher, 40-year-old Rakshannah Ranney, was engaged in some kind of sexual activity with the girl in the car, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

SUGAR LAND, TX (KTRK) -- A former Sugar Land teacher has been arrested for allegedly uploading child pornography to the internet. Chad Cole, 40, was arrested at a home on a charge of promoting that pornography. Investigators with the Houston Metro Internet Crimes against Children task force say they traced the files back to Cole's computer.

A Massachusetts teenager charged with raping and murdering his teacher last year after following her into a bathroom followed a chillingly similar plan when he attacked a female jail counselor last month in the youth detention center where he was being held, authorities say. Chism's attorney, Denise Regan, did not challenge the bail or conditions of bail. She asked that her client be excused from his next scheduled court appearance on September 19 because of the stress it causes him.

In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers revived a debate I’d had with futurist Ray Kurzweil in 2012 about the jobless future. He echoed the words of Peter Diamandis, who says that we are moving from a history of scarcity to an era of abundance. Then he noted that the technologies that make such abundance possible are allowing production of far more output using far fewer people. On all this, Summers is right. Within two decades, we will have almost unlimited energy, food, and clean water; advances in medicine will allow us to live...

“I was actually scared that it was so close to home, literally, it’s right here on my block,” said Allyson Deihl. “I’ve heard it on the news nationally and it’s scary to think that it’s happening in Jacksonville, in Riverside.” According to the police report, the man and woman spotted three men walking in their direction, then realized they were being followed. The report said that the woman grabbed her can of Mace from her purse, and then her boyfriend was punched, causing him to stumble to the ground. The woman told police that she tried to spray the men...

I have never in my life encountered a religion as oppressive, cold, and stiff as Progressivism. I’ve never known a faith more eager to burn heretics at the stake. Even a fundamentalist Iranian Muslim would flinch if he came face to face with a western liberal’s rigid dogmatism. I imagine that even a Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric would take one look at how American left wingers react when anyone deviates ever so slightly from their established orthodoxy, and say to himself, “man, these people REALLY need to chill.” The Cult of Leftism has many tenets, and it demands full compliance...

For two Harvard University undergrads, what began as "an excuse to eat a lot of cake" may turn into the invention of a lifetime. John McCallum, a 20-year-old from Louisiana, was daydreaming about cake his freshman year during his “Science of Cooking” class when he happened to see someone spraying whipped cream and thought to himself, why not spray cake? Is that possible? He and his girlfriend and fellow student Brooke Nowakowski went on to prove that it is, winning first place and $10,000 in the 2014 Harvard Innovation challenge, reports ABC News. Their "Spray Cake" involves spraying cake batter...

Four fifth-grade girls in Salt Lake City have accused their teacher of touching them inappropriately. James Rolland Carter, 62, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with two second-degree felony counts of sexual abuse of a child and two class A misdemeanor counts of lewdness involving a child. Carter’s school is not identified in the charges, but the address of the allegations matches Lincoln Elementary School. The Salt Lake City School District would not confirm any details of a case involving Carter, but spokesman Michael Williams said that an elementary teacher who was employed for 13 years "is under investigation...

Pro-Israeli fans have attacked celebrities for posts expressing solidarity with PalestiniansSelena Gomez is the latest celebrity to express solidarity with Palestinians suffering under Israel’s brutal assault of Palestinians in Gaza The young pop star posted a message on Instagram on Friday urging her followers to ‘pray for those families and babies today’. While many of her fans praised her post, the singer was attacked by pro-Israeli fans and unfollowed by many. On Tuesday, Barbados-born pop star Rihanna posted #FreePalestine on her Twitter feed, but deleted it eight minutes later after she received a barrage of replies criticising her. Instead she...

In 2004, 7-year-old Ting Shi arrived in New York from China, speaking almost no English. For two years, he shared a bedroom in a Chinatown apartment with his grandparents — a cook and a factory worker — and a young cousin, while his parents put in 12-hour days at a small laundromat they had purchased on the Upper East Side. Ting mastered English and eventually set his sights on getting into Stuyvesant High School, the crown jewel of New York City’s eight “specialized high schools.” When he was in sixth grade, he took the subway downtown from his parents’ small...

FULL TITLE: Art teacher, 45, who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with 17 male students as young as 12 is sentenced to 15 years jail A high school teacher who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with male students, including asking them for semen-stained tissues to make art projects, has been sentenced to 15 years jail. Charles Reilly admitted he also instructed the 17 boys, aged 12 to 16, at New Jersey's Pine Hill Middle School how to masturbate over a five year period. Authorities said the 45-year-old soccer coach, who'd worked at the school for more than a decade, also...

Just watch it: "Debate" American Common Core Style: Our Top Orators in Action "The Nuts Are Running The Asylum"

Dakota Blazier had made a big decision. Friendly and fresh-faced, from a small town north of Indianapolis, he'd made up his mind: He wasn't going to college. "I discovered a long time ago," he explained, "I'm not book smart. I don't like sitting still, and I learn better when the problem is practical." But he didn't feel this limited his options—to the contrary. And he was executing a plan as purposeful as that of any of his high-school peers. It started in his junior year with release time from high school to take a course in basic construction skills at...

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - A teacher and former councilman in Camden County faces prison after admitting he engaged in inappropriate sexual communications with 17 male students. Charles Reilly is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after he pleaded guilty to official misconduct, child endangerment and attempted child endangerment.

An aquatics instructor at a summer camp for youngsters at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore has been charged with sexual solicitation of a minor, police said. Charles David Beaver, 58, a former teacher at Westminster High School, was arrested Tuesday at a Baltimore County hotel, police said. Police said the Carroll County man had communicated online with a person he believed was a pimp to arrange a meeting at the hotel with two teenage boys for sex. The supposed pimp was actually a Baltimore County detective. When Beaver showed up at the hotel, he was taken into custody....

A Randolph County teacher is behind bars after he allegedly exchanged sexual texts, phone calls, and pictures with a 16-year-old student. According to the criminal complaint, 34-year-old Donald Johnson allegedly sent multiple sexual messages to one of his own students.

Many American colleges and universities are in the thrall of “diversity,” but none more so than my institution, the University of Wisconsin. This spring, the university adopted a new plan that, according to Board of Regents policy, “[p]laces the mission of diversity at the center of institutional life so that it becomes a core organizing principle.” ......................................................... It calls for “proportional participation of historically underrepresented racial-ethnic groups at all levels of an institution, including high status special programs, high-demand majors, and in the distribution of grades.”

It's such a long read - I'm just going to link the article

Virginity pledges, alongside abstinence-focused sex ed in general, are a favorite punching bag of those who favor comprehensive sex ed. In addition to being unrealistic, say their detractors, abstinence pledges promote an "all or nothing" approach to sex that may well lead to unhealthier behaviors. A new study in the Journal of Child and Family Studies bolsters these critiques by taking a nuanced look at how people with different levels of religious commitment react to purity pledges. The researchers had 1,380 students at a "large, public Southeastern state univeristy" fill out a survey about their behavior. More than a quarter...

A teen in Alberta, Canada, was forced to sit through a sex education class taught by a Christian group, a class that she says advocated abstinence and included such teachings as “condoms don’t work” and “gonorrhea can kill you in three days,” among other examples of flagrant misinformation. So Emily Dawson and her mother Kathy filed a human rights complaint against the Edmonton Public School Board. The board has now dumped the Christian group that taught the abstinence education class, the Edmonton Pregnancy Care Center, an anti-abortion activist group. The group says that what it teaches in the class is...

This "Public Service Announcement" is being run heavily on one of our local TV stations. I think it is ridiculous. Kids at a playground wishing they were in school because of missing the school lunch(!).

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. - A decade-old allegation accusing a local teacher is being re-investigated after the teacher was arrested for similar charges. Matthew Graziotti, who works at the Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona, was arrested on Monday for producing and distributing child porn. Graziotti had been accused of misconduct with minor children in 2004, according to Edgewater police, but no evidence was discovered at that time. With this new arrest, the past allegation is being re-investigated, police told Local 6.

Broken down by party affiliation, 82 percent of Democrats said they would support the United States while just 9 percent said they would support the Confederate States of America. Among Republicans, 37 percent said they would support the Confederate States of America while 41 percent said they would support the United States. Another 21 percent of Republicans said they weren't sure while 9 percent of Democrats said they weren't sure.