Free Republic

Texas legislators have cleared the way for schools to teach--not preach--the Bible,......

TROY, N.Y. - Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in "Second Life." A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world. But Edd is different. His actions are animated not by a person at a keyboard but by a computer. Edd is a creation of artificial intelligence, or AI, by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who endowed him with a limited ability to converse and reason. It turns out "Second Life" is more than a place where pixelated avatars chat, interact and fly about. It's also a frontier...

'Shameless' parents not teaching skills By James Kirkup Political Correspondent Last Updated: 4:04AM BST 14/05/2008 A generation of young Britons are growing up in "shameless" families where parents lack the basic skills to raise their children, the Conservatives will warn today. Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, will claim that in some parts of the country there is no culture of parents instilling discipline and respect in their offspring. He will tell a London think tank that multiple generations of teenage parents mean that some of today's children have no exposure to elder relatives with traditional experience of...

FOB PROSPERITY – One of the benefits of teaching Iraqi Soldiers is the opportunity to learn from them as well. Military Training Teams, while providing instruction and mentorship for the Iraqi Army, are also learning as they go. The MiTT of the "First Team's" 2nd Brigade Combat Team works a seemingly endless schedule to ensure 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division runs the way they should be. They lay the foundation, point them in the right direction and the Iraqis do the rest. Although the training team is relatively new, they do well, according to First Sgt. Joseph McFarlane, the...

Transition Teams Teach and Mentor Iraqi Soldiers MiTTs advise, coach, teach, and mentor Iraqi soldiers and their leaders — to a level where they can work independently. By U.S. Army Sgt. Shannon Crane U.S. Central Command Public Affairs CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Nov. 20, 2006 -- Rome wasn’t built in a day...and neither was its army. Constructing, supplying and properly training a country’s fighting force is hardly an expeditious task. It is a process. And this process can be likened to a marathon...not a sprint. The same can be said for the Iraqi army. Over the past three years, it...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Nov. 14, 2006) Lt. Col. John C. Pastino lost his role model, hunting buddy and best friend when his 60-year-old father, Carmen N. Pastino, was killed by a drunk driver on Easter Sunday 2001. The great loss inspires him to educate others. "Was my father killed so that I could teach a lesson to others? I sure hope not, but it is all I can do at this point," Pastino said. "If I can save others, then I have honored him." Since his father's tragic death, Pastino has educated more than 600 people about the dangers...

MANAMA, Bahrain, Oct. 17, 2006 -- The U.S. Coast Guard here is playing a vital role supporting the Iraqi government as it protects Iraq’s offshore oil terminals and maintains waterway security in the region, Coast Guardsmen here told visiting civilian leaders today. Joint Civilian Orientation Conference participants get a close look at the deck gun of a 110-foot Coast Guard patrol boat in Manama, Bahrain, Oct. 17. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class L.F. Chambers, USCG  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. About 45 civilian leaders kicked off a whirlwind visit to U.S. military sites throughout the Middle East...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Aug. 18, 2006) -- Since August 2005, almost every drill instructor who has graduated from Drill Instructor School here has attended the Instructors’ Course at the depot’s Marine Corps Martial Arts Program facility. The course is designed to give drill instructors more knowledge and experience with the materials taught in MCMAP before they teach it to the recruits. “Instructors’ courses are recommended for all drill instructors to make them more proficient in MCMAP to help the recruits out,” said Staff Sgt. Jeff J. Vandentop, course instructor on the depot. A minimum of a gray...

7/19/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Iraqi Air Force maintenance people are putting down their wrenches and picking up fire hoses. They are under the experienced eyes of Kirkuk Air Base's 506th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron firefighters here. For firefighters of the Iraqi Air Force, walking into an inferno on an already warm day is an experience still rather new. "The majority of the Iraqi firefighters have never been to a formal fire academy and have never been part of a fire department," said Staff Sgt. Carlos Bosch, a 506th ECES firefighter. "We are here to ease their...

5/3/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Pilots from the Iraqi Air Force are waiting patiently for a team of Airmen to arrive from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. It’s this team that can get them up in the air and flying again. The mission of the Iraqi 3rd Squadron hinges on the work of the Air Force Flight Test Center. The center sent a team of maintainers, engineers and pilots here to test the airworthiness of the Comp Air 7SLX. The aircraft -- several were given to the Iraqis as a gift from the United Arab Emirates --...

3/27/2006 - JANI JER, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) -- With the help of volunteers from the American military base just a few miles away, teenagers in Kyrgyzstan are learning the English language. During hectic deployment hours and long work weeks, Airmen from U.S. Central Command Air Force’s Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan still find time to help out the local community through the Manas Air Base Outreach Society. They sponsor many trips off base to help local orphanages, a children's cancer center and other programs. Volunteers from Manas attempted to break the language barrier at the Lyceum school for teenagers, ages 14...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (March 22, 2006) -- Marines are making knuckle-busting, wrench-turners out of Iraqi soldiers. Marine from 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment working with Regimental Combat Team 5, are teaching Iraqis the in’s and out’s of humvee maintenance. Mechanics from the battalion’s Headquarters and Support Company are training Iraqi Army soldiers on maintenance and operations for humvees. The Iraqi soldiers received their new humvees less than a week ago. “We are teaching the Iraqis the basics,” said Sgt. Laurice Kelly, a 36-year-old motor transport operations chief from Copperscove, Texas. “We are teaching basic maintenance and functions of the humvee.”...

One exciting thing about the free market is that you can't predict what the market will create. Big-government advocates tell you exactly what will happen when their plans work (as if they actually would work!), but we who trust the free market can only say that people will compete and good ideas will win. We do know that competition works. It works because it gives people the chance to be creative...

1/11/2006 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Reality is often at odds with expectations when Airmen deploy. This difference can be extreme when the mission is to provide military training to a recent enemy. But several Airmen near the end of six-month deployments as advisory support team instructors say they would rather stay here than go home after their experiences. During their deployment they have had a chance to directly shape the future of the world, learn about and gain respect for a different culture, meet men they now call brothers and solidify their instinctive belief that the U.S. Air...

Father imprisoned four girls in flat to 'teach them Islam' By Henry Samuel in Paris (Filed: 07/01/2006) A Moroccan father of four girls who imprisoned his wife and children in their flat "in the name of Islam" received a 10-month suspended sentence and was stripped of his parental rights yesterday. The unidentified 45-year-old was found guilty of breaking French law on compulsory schooling for children over the age of six, which applies to three of the four girls - aged four, 10, 13 and 14. The man, from the town of Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme region, said he had refused...

CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2005) -- The majority of professional armed forces worldwide receive some form of standardized training in the operation and handling of the weapons they will use in combat. The fledgling Iraqi military and police forces didn’t receive this type of training until May 10, when instructors like Sgt. Michael Magallanez created the Iraqi Small Arms Weapons Instructor Course (ISAWIC) at the newly formed 2nd Marine Division Training Center (DTC) here. The 13-day course is the primary focus of the DTC and teaches Iraqi soldiers and American service members the fundamentals of marksmanship and the AK-series...

U.S. Army Capt. Joe Blanton, commander of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, instructs a group of Iraqi soldiers during a class on improvised explosive devices in Tall Afar, Iraq, Nov. 29, 2005. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. James Wilt More Photos U.S. Paratroopers Teach IED Recognition The classes are being taught in an effort by the U.S. Army to protect the people of Iraq and members of the Iraqi army from improvised explosive devices. By U.S. Army Pfc. James Wilt 82nd Airborne Division TALL AFAR, Iraq, Dec. 12, 2005 — U.S. Army paratroopers...

An Interview with Christina Asquith: About “The Emergency Teacher” Tuesday, November 8, 2005 EducationNews.org Suzi Cottrell Michael F. Shaughnessy Eastern New Mexico University Portales, New Mexico 1) You have recently written a book about “The Emergency Teachers” What prompted you to write this book? Literature is a powerful teaching tool. When I started my first year teaching in a low-income, urban school, I searched for books by other new teachers to use as a model for myself. But I couldn’t find anything that was realistic and written by a teacher. So, when my year ended, and I had learned so...

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Nicholas Gaytangarner, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment (Airborne), shows a group of Afghan National Army soldiers a paper target that was fired at with an AK-47 set on automatic Nov. 18, 2005 at Kandahar Airfield. Only one round made it to the paper, none were on the target. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Caldwell Sky Soldiers Teach Marksmanship Skills U.S. Army soldiers, along with Romanian and other coalition soldiers took the lead in teaching Afghan soldiers basic rifle marksmanship. By Staff Sgt. Jacob Caldwell TF Bayonet Public Affairs KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov....

When and where on earth can you see the longest sunrise? And how long can you see it? Stumped? Well, then, sample another. What would you see from the moon more often: the sun or the earth? A five-member team of 14-to-17-year olds will hone their skills over the next 10 days to unravel a few more secrets that the skies hold. Their aim: to win as many medals as possible at the International Astronomy Olympiad that kicks off in Beijing on October 25. It will not be an easy task — they will be up against competition from over...