tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65916336930824681192024-02-20T23:17:51.819-08:00NewsHammer On CampusAlan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-48445888122395339892010-09-04T11:01:00.000-07:002010-09-09T16:43:47.318-07:00iPad Cheaper Than College<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMrelv-2rmGXyphLXLlrVkSFgp6HJpYxxtdUbMJWbymYBNz5PSaIVQPa8tl2GDBQIuxKXtX9M8uVGhdORoXd-rJscyn2j7a6kudPZPdgS9QMtfPGgupQs2PIAoag8u9E27K5Fbw1hNyVL/s1600/appstore_rotator_portrait_20100225.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 253px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513121340622377202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMrelv-2rmGXyphLXLlrVkSFgp6HJpYxxtdUbMJWbymYBNz5PSaIVQPa8tl2GDBQIuxKXtX9M8uVGhdORoXd-rJscyn2j7a6kudPZPdgS9QMtfPGgupQs2PIAoag8u9E27K5Fbw1hNyVL/s320/appstore_rotator_portrait_20100225.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">If you're wondering what you're doing in college maybe you should get an iPad.</span><br /><br />Relax, it's not a test. Of course if iPad gets an eventual iSight and GPS it won't matter what you do. Sooner or later you'll be an Internet sensation going viral all over the Quad and maybe the Free World. Anyway <a href="http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/02/spy-at-harrington-high.html">check your MacBook first </a>if you think you're paranoid. Or beat your friends and the government and <a href="http://www.spectorsoft.com/">install your own spyware</a> before <em>1984</em>. Oops that was the Best Before date.<br /><br />But if dorm room privacy is not an issue the really cool thing about the iPad is it's friendly day or night and won't bite hard or hump your leg when it gets frisky. It could even save you money and lugging a ton of books around if you don't really like reading textbooks and who does?<br /><br />The iPad just might be the gamechanger on campus. Only one damn thing to loose. Where's that Chem text, that FN Psych crap? <em>Is that you?</em> Can't cramp your style either when you won't have to dump all your Brontés all over Sigma Delta Phi to answer that one important call from hell on your cell. Or if you have to play the nerd living at home, you can always take your iPad along self-consciously like "I'm going to a study group at the Longhorn" (Bar). The iPad can be your escape window to Beer Pong and new worlds beyond.<br /><br />If you still haven't bought into the Apple Universe, ask Steve Jobs on Twitter, <em>why?</em><br /><br />@<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez6vixzhH0Y"><span style="color:#3333ff;">LosingItInCollege</span></a> Everything we do is a mistake sooner or later. <a href="http://by.ly/fuuk"><span style="color:#3333ff;">http://by.ly/fuuk</span></a><br /><br />@<a href="http://twitter.com/stephenathome"><span style="color:#3333ff;">StephenAtHome</span></a> Yeah if some guy named Steve posts our ass out of context. <a href="http://yfrog.com/mu3xpj"><span style="color:#3333ff;">http://yfrog.com/mu3xpj</span></a><br /><br />OK, so we won that one. But speaking of Obama isn't that what we're getting with the iPad? A flashy but no real Flash gizmo with a world of Apps nobody really needs and a straitjacket NoAndroid OS with limited productivity Ops? Try printing something that sucks or doesn't suck like right now. No says Steve. <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/software-update/?aosid=p204&siteid=1503186&program_id=2554&cid=OAS-EMEA-AFF&tduid=4fd739aa1cdbe3c8d6f445a693037e32">Wait until November for iOS 4.2.</a><br /><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3osHqzNA602GJeFCHmiJOT8AwmjYVk5mLmoscQijwPr0V-uYgM6pnOpa4RKNdu8lTcGPWXBctQJ6h5Ik80V7y1S1vg_cEVXwO-gNdmmWFnTghPj5842lDBnHV4uOfobBFM0WPzU9SAxvH/s1600/Flickr_134438840_79047e4cf8_b_AppleMavens_edit1_CCSeanOSullivan2006.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513878503987395138" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3osHqzNA602GJeFCHmiJOT8AwmjYVk5mLmoscQijwPr0V-uYgM6pnOpa4RKNdu8lTcGPWXBctQJ6h5Ik80V7y1S1vg_cEVXwO-gNdmmWFnTghPj5842lDBnHV4uOfobBFM0WPzU9SAxvH/s400/Flickr_134438840_79047e4cf8_b_AppleMavens_edit1_CCSeanOSullivan2006.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;">Yes We Know Steve. We're All Slaves.</span><br /><br />Funny, reminds me of the Obama gameplan, like waiting for the Obama we elected. Any chance before 2012? But hold it right there, it may be a vacuous comparison. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOwMjvoRLr4">Alternate video link</a>)<br /><br /><object width="400" height="250"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sOwMjvoRLr4?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sOwMjvoRLr4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="250"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Obama Stone Age Gameplan For The College Of The Future</span><br /><br />If you're already in the Apple Universe it doesn't matter what Obama says. Fuck it, buy one. In for a pocket-melting Nano, in for <a href="http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad?mco=OTY2ODA0NQ">Death by <em>VISA</em> at $829.00 for 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G</a>.<br /><br />And get everything else you need for only $224.00 extra like the optional kickstand and <em>SD card reader???</em> that you'll be sorry you never bothered ordering.<br /><br />So what's $1053.00 plus tax do for college?* Suddenly you're cool. The future is now. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/video/science-15749654/ipad-changing-how-college-textbooks-are-used-21709963">See lame AP video with iPads</a> in adorable picture frame standup wallets in a goofy college classroom setting. Maybe not so cool. Dumb do-nothing iPads on the face of it. But you can always bite the bullet and go back to your laptop or netbook for Skype or video chat with iPhone buddies on Apple FaceTime or read a book. Or get an Android or Windows 7 tablet with full pdf support, webcam and Flash and maybe save a bundle eventually when somebody makes a fully featured iClone for cheap.<br /><br />Or be brave and try something even better now like the more compact <a href="http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/libretto/W100">Toshiba Libretto W100</a> running W7 with webcam and 2 screens and extras that folds like a book though still Apple pricey at $1100.00 but in the iPad ballpark. For cutting edge style and quality Toshiba also rivals Apple. I've got a compact Protégé that doesn't need a yearly replacement like in Steve's Apple Universe. But wait, there is a dirt cheap alternative. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3qiSXc1g3M">Alternate video link</a>)<br /><br /><object width="400" height="325"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u3qiSXc1g3M?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u3qiSXc1g3M?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="325"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">ObamaPad College Demo</span><br /><br />Well? Maybe there's been some mistake? It doesn't look like the ObamaPad will ever work. And if there's no known competition for the iPad not everything looks as rosy as a MacIntosh either at Apple. See the other Steve (Wozniak) below who has never been seen anywhere near an iPad or a MacBook even at this prestigious and important book signing.<br /><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTy4Q_ptQHW_44SbsYlwzoFrbEBLPSk5f-ZAsqNKcXk0HfkoNf0wZIXElfeSfxovnUh7FAywg4od16bjEXvgWqPsAVIXoMUUWbMXqzAE70soMPB8miu7nVplXeYgiaeHUi3KVjooVp24y9/s1600/Flickr_277407417_453f2a0076_b_SteveWozniakAppleBookSigningOxford_CCSeanOSullivan2006.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513923876121784242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTy4Q_ptQHW_44SbsYlwzoFrbEBLPSk5f-ZAsqNKcXk0HfkoNf0wZIXElfeSfxovnUh7FAywg4od16bjEXvgWqPsAVIXoMUUWbMXqzAE70soMPB8miu7nVplXeYgiaeHUi3KVjooVp24y9/s400/Flickr_277407417_453f2a0076_b_SteveWozniakAppleBookSigningOxford_CCSeanOSullivan2006.jpg" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;">iWOZ Signing <em>iPaper </em>Books</span><br /><br />Is Apple going back to paper stickies and soldering pencils? Can you smell the Cork burning?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dEtWGBl5lBMPJHAgFRYoHQUkg1IoOdWfK_bSxC-NtxSgMiAxXCykFgSifh1c-pzou7-swYPUJxRG-0w_xPMhl-DH-EAXBhQFfK__OMc8wd-mh9iX4LPy3fNQG4wziTyZ0r8k9wTZiuid/s1600/Flickr_114879402_2c61c37d97_o_AppleFactoryCorkIreland_edit1_CCSeanOSullivan2004.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 190px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513926577854135122" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dEtWGBl5lBMPJHAgFRYoHQUkg1IoOdWfK_bSxC-NtxSgMiAxXCykFgSifh1c-pzou7-swYPUJxRG-0w_xPMhl-DH-EAXBhQFfK__OMc8wd-mh9iX4LPy3fNQG4wziTyZ0r8k9wTZiuid/s400/Flickr_114879402_2c61c37d97_o_AppleFactoryCorkIreland_edit1_CCSeanOSullivan2004.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">The Future At Apple (Cork)</span><br /><br />Have Steve and Steve been watching the Obama Stone Age Gameplan above? Is Astroturfing the Apple parking lot in Cork Ireland a good idea? Only if no one is working for Apple anymore. iPads now cloning iPads, is that it? Is that the AppleObama iWorld ahead? Nobody works and nobody gets paid either. Steve still has his Jobs at the September Apple Get-togethers. Obama takes over Larry King Live but keeps his day job? Then why are kids going to college? To buy an iPad? If an iPad gets you a job I guess that's OK.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The Serious Stuff: Buying an iPad To Read A Book</span><br /><br />With <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/tag/entourage/">Tablets and Tablet Dust</a> settling a year down the road, the iPad still has the lead for college if you want one thing the others don't have, an eBook reader experience in color right now. With Apps you can not only get about 30,000 titles from iTunes <em>free</em> (only in the USA), you can also port your books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble onto your iPad. Though not a seamless fit, say some customers who own Kindles and the B&N nook eReaders. But you've got huge access to an amazing number of cheaper than paper books including college textbooks and some are now re-engineered to custom fit the iPad experience like the (you pay girl) special iPad editions of big magazines and newspapers.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Do You Really Need To? No.</span><br /><br />Textbooks and other books are nothing new for laptops or PCs or some Smart Phones, so you can slog through the aesthetic difficulties without another $1,000 for the iPad and enjoy 50% savings over printed books just the same. About all you'd be missing is the re-engineered textbooks for the iPad, so far just one bookshelf, that incorporate video and interactive note taking you can share with friends like on a social network. If that's too cool to ignore, well you're stuck with iPad as the best thing around. But since these iPad only eTextbooks are heavy on memory you need the 64 Gig for enough wiggle room or you'll be stuck in $499.00 Apple hell.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">eTextbooks And Where To Get Them</span><br /><br /><strong>iPad Only</strong>: So far <a href="http://www.inkling.com/">Inkling</a> has the lead in customized eTextbooks for the iPad, only a few titles so far in this new market, but <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100401/the-race-for-e-textbook-readers.html">other book repackagers</a> are on it.<br /><br /><strong>iPad And Everything Else:</strong> <a href="http://www.coursesmart.com/students">CourseSmart</a> has about 10,000 titles that will work on the iPhone, iPod and now the iPad. But these eTextbooks were designed and still work on any computer or laptop you might have (good news) which will give you most of the features you need like Search and Note-taking. Recent CourseSmart titles might be fully optimized for the iPad and no doubt they'll go whole hog on the iPad if everybody else does. <a href="http://www.coursesmart.com/go/mobile/">CourseSmart iTunes Apps for all the iiiApples here.</a><br /><br /><strong>For Everything Else And iPad Later:</strong> <a href="http://www.cafescribe.com/">CaféScribe</a> has about 8,000 titles and will work on PC and Mac, but so far there isn't an App for the iPad. It's also the site to get your free digital edition if you have a College Bookstore Access Code for the paper textbook you bought. Don't knock it, paper was fun. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqjhhHzDBQo">Alternate video link</a>)<br /><br /><object width="400" height="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gqjhhHzDBQo?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gqjhhHzDBQo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="260"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Remember Paper Books?</span><br /><br />Basically if you're a Freshman in Arts & Humanities with a lousy Windows laptop, and no other eReader, you can't lose if you hang onto that lousy laptop. Then going all the way for the bigtop iPad should get you through your first 4 years in style unless you need the dreaded Adobe pdf. Maybe somebody at Adobe could take Steve out for a Martinis and show him on an iPad what a big pain the iPad is without easy pdf support. And no Adobe Flash. Hey Steve, is this the ultimate Consumer Experience?<br /><br />There are workarounds, but? Saving a grand on an iPad is easier especially if you're in Sciences. Scientists gorge on pdf files day and night. Get some sleep instead with a real laptop. Anyway Einstein never had an iPad, never read an eBook and used a pencil and the back of an envelop for E=MC^2.<br /><br /><strong>More eBooks From iTunes:</strong> Yes, it's <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ibooks.html">iBooks</a>, what else? For iPads, iiiApples and the kitchen sink. 30,000 free titles but for now only in the USA. iBooks with its pdf converter to EPUB is also locked into the USA. There are other pdf converters fortunately. <a href="http://www.labnol.org/software/ipad-pdf-reader-apps/13807/">DigitalInspiration reviews the Top 6 pdf Apps.</a> And if you aren't Apple Certified and can't <a href="http://epublishersweekly.wordpress.com/%E2%99%A6%E2%99%A6-d-read/how-to-read-epub/">read EPUB</a> from iBooks there are Apps for that discussed on this link in EpublishersWeekly.<br /><br /><strong>More eBooks From Amazon:</strong> If you don't have a Kindle you can still get a <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/kindle/id302584613?mt=8">Kindle App from iTunes</a> for the iPad and the other iiiApples. Now that's a lot of books and textbooks for cheaper than paper. The wow factor is the freebies for the college litterati who won't have to pay a dime for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011">thousands of free classics in Kindle format from Amazon</a>. On the same page you'll find reading Apps that work for the iPhone, PC, Mac and Blackberry. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Textbooks/b/ref=amb_link_85650291_41?ie=UTF8&node=2223210011">Amazon also carries eTextbooks</a> you pay for.<br /><br /><strong>More eBooks From Barnes & Noble:</strong> Same thing if you're looking for books in print. You don't need a B&N eReader, just the <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/barnes-noble-nook-for-ipad/id373582546?mt=8">NOOK App for iPad.</a> Like Amazon you can get a million plus books at B&N, including ebooks and etextbooks you could read on other NonApples. Some thousands are free or extra cheap. <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/take-a-tour.asp?PID=28413">Take a B&N eBooks Tour.</a><br /><br /><strong>More eBooks From BooksOnBoard:</strong> About 400,000 general titles for all platforms, and a Stanza App for iPad. <a href="http://www.booksonboard.com/landing.php?ebooks-audio-books">BooksOnBoard Apps and Tour.</a><br /><br /><strong>More eBooks From Google Books: </strong>This Search Megalopolis covers about all books and eBooks and often supplies free previews. <a href="http://books.google.com/">Google Books</a> will tell you where to go to buy a title and has the largest number of free eBooks, rare out of print and the classics. Foreign language books too. Free Downloads are usually in pdf format but a growing number of EPUB files are available for iPad.<br /><br /><a href="http://google.about.com/od/experimentalgoogletools/ht/how2dwnloadbook.htm">How to Find and Download Public Domain Books from Google Book Search (pdf files and EPUB)<br />How do I read Google Books on my iPad? (EPUB) </a></p><p><strong>More eBooks Free From Project Gutenberg:</strong> About 100,000 public domain titles available from not-for-profit <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project Gutenberg for free downloads</a>. Supports iPad and most eReaders through Apps. This is the gilt-edged literary archive. If you're looking for a readable copy of some ancient manuscript, try here first. Donations welcome. </p><p><strong>More eBooks:</strong> If you Google around you'll find many specialized eLibraries and eBookstores. Try this list from <a href="http://websearch.about.com/od/dailywebsearchtips/qt/dnt0607.htm">About.com: Read Books Online for Free.</a></p><p><strong>Research Materials:</strong> A free and helpful source on any academic topic, where you can find papers, essays, reports and books, is <a href="http://www.onlinebooks4free.com/">OnlineBooks4Free</a>, about 10,000 titles of historical interest sorted by subject. More the old library approach rather than a hundred pages of Search Results and junk on whatever. Use Advanced Search when you can. Still all this Googling in the digital jungle never seems to end, that is once you've got your iPad and Tech issues carefully hammered down. Doesn't leave much time for reading. Irony is not just a literary device.</p><p><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 279px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513884856338955634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_AiTCzKNJYJNIhFqSAl77xrYK9bI57rK5cTgJI2WffX0bTuoi4tHbr565uFZP5CexHxJ3ZbxicZdIqLup7Yw_5nRBTFg9f0rqmQhnsGj4fxECgKwOfND0uVzvKIdatuN5EoJWGZw6nps/s400/Flickr_3316067736_839317c7f4_b_AppleHomework_CCMorningtheft2009.jpg" /><span style="font-size:130%;">iPad Downside</span><br /><br />Really need one? The lack of full support for Adobe pdf is a bigger headache than it looks. A lot of students especially Grad Students and Post Docs need pdf not only for reading books and published papers, but most publish their own papers on pdf too. If that's you, forget the Apple Universe. If you're in Science trash the iPad now! iBooks too is USA only. And the lack of Adobe Flash makes surfing the Net a pain when most websites use it for animations and video.</p><p>OK, if you don't mind some pain, there's <a href="http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=889397">Copying a PDF to iPad Sucks!!!</a> No no no, says <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/pages.html">Apple Easy file sharing.</a> </p><p>Other downsides on the iPad besides the price and monthly $data plan$, are the still small just under 10 inch screen that washes out in bright light too. It's not great for absorbing the large double-page spread of textbooks that often need 2 iPads or more of space to sink into the brain. Think of Science or Accounting where you need to concentrate on figures or graphs that are just too damn small to manage without zooming and scrolling all the time. Flipping back to another page you're thinking of, isn't easy even if you can type in a search box for it when keywords vanish under the influence of Lady Gaga in your earbuds. And what do you do if your whole world on one iPad crashes or the battery dies a horrible death? The end.<br /><br />Paper doesn't do that and you can always find your notes in the margins. If textbooks are insanely expensive, there's always Used at a big discount. Maybe low tech ain't so bad. Besides, whatever the iPad can do, it can't give you a totally reliable and comfortable reading experience. Paper can't be beat. And there's a nice trend in paper textbooks to supply a free digital copy of the book on disk or via an online coupon.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05IGLcBXeU5bwpml3pXTB1x_QqCcxlxCH3z6_7B2UkrZED_VwEW9c9CQMx6HP7WTcL-Fdk_4_1EJoOuk2ESBu0pn40LSDxOdjM2yKtpJnc2nRy9KyoJnB58IdlOh7zTXD15PLxUQgpKI6/s1600/Flickr_3304556262_ec2b36bd12_b_NoThanksDRM-ladenKindle_CCcrschmidt2009.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514182379529561698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi05IGLcBXeU5bwpml3pXTB1x_QqCcxlxCH3z6_7B2UkrZED_VwEW9c9CQMx6HP7WTcL-Fdk_4_1EJoOuk2ESBu0pn40LSDxOdjM2yKtpJnc2nRy9KyoJnB58IdlOh7zTXD15PLxUQgpKI6/s320/Flickr_3304556262_ec2b36bd12_b_NoThanksDRM-ladenKindle_CCcrschmidt2009.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Forget The iPad And Get A Kindle 3</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">"I want to point out that I do not own, or ever intend to own a DRM-laden Kindle. I was just looking at it." Matt Lee</span><br /><br />Matt's right, but are we already doomed by <a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm">DRM greed</a>? Ask Apple. My guess is somewhere at the bottom of this Apple Century of Erosion of Rights we won't own anything, but we'll keep paying for it.</p><p>Take the Kindle for instance. You buy an eBook for it from Amazon, but you can't loan it out to a friend. It's only partly your eBook. Nuts. At least at Barnes & Noble they don't have DRM for that. You can loan it out for 2 whole weeks. But it automatically returns itself to your Nook where paper books often don't.</p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Forget The Kindle. Try The Nook</span></p><p>So maybe you should go for the <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/e-book-readers/barnes-noble-nook-wi/4505-3508_7-34122435.html#reviewPage1">B&N Nook</a>. It beats the iPad and the Kindle. It's an Android here today. You can add more memory with Micro SD. Replace the battery yourself! Reads pdf and EPUB right out of the box. Listen to MP3s. Web Browser, Color Touch Navigation. Wi-Fi for $149 and $199 for that and 3G. You'll need the 3G Internet if you want to buy and download eBooks directly to your Nook from the B&N online bookstore even when its tethered at home. </p><p>The cheaper Wi-Fi model will do that too but for Internet only at AT&T Hotspots or at B&N stores. At home your personal Wi-Fi won't work with the Nook. You'll need a patchcord to sync the Nook like an MP3 player. Then you can download files from your PC you already have like pdfs and music, even a screensaver. That's the major hassle with limited Wi-Fi on the Nook. Spend the extra $50 for 3G. But if you've never used one, try before you buy at your local B&N Bookstore. </p><p>So an eReader and your old PC or laptop. $200 extra or the Apple $1,000? If you're heavy on literature and languages, where reading is the thing and the texts you need are out of copyright and free, going the eReader route is a no brainer. The Nook or the new <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/e-book-readers/amazon-kindle-3g-wi/4505-3508_7-34140425.html#reviewPage1">Kindle 3</a> $10 less for both models, would pay for itself the first year in free downloads. Remember the iPad needs a data plan like from AT&T that rips out $15 or $25 and easily more from your beer budget every single month.</p><p>Both screens are similar 6 inch eInk displays or paperpack size that are easier to tote around and work better outdoors than iPad but need a night light in bed.<br /><br />The bigger Kindle DX has a bigger screen but why bother when it it's pushing its way into pricey iPad territory?<br /><br />You'll be able to test drive and buy Kindles soon at Staples so Staples says. Another good idea. Fly it first. In the meantime if you want a look at all the big eReaders together including the iPad like soldiers in a row, you can watch this <a href="http://vimeo.com/14461159">coy Kindle 3 NYT video</a>.<br /><br />In the end if you're this close to flipping for an iPad no matter what, go ahead. You can do no wrong in the Apple Universe. But make sure you have the minimum laptop backup. Or should you get the new better world <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20100903/tc_digitaltrends/samsunggalaxytabvsappleipad_1">Samsung Galaxy Tablet</a>? Not any cheaper either.<br /><br />Still confused? This <a href="http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/apple-ipad.html">iPad Review from <em>The-eBook-Reader</em></a> takes you back to square one. Plus there are other eReader options that could keep you awake all night. Throw a party.<br /><br />* If you're a real card-carrying student and you still gotta have an iPad you can check out your local college bookstore in person and try to nail down the must have Apple discount from Apple.<br /><br />--Alan Gillis</p><p><span style="font-size:130%;">Stop Press: Update Sept 9, 2010/ Flash apps blessed by Jobs</span></p><p>Looks like Steve got his Martini Moment with Adobe #1 John Warnock. <a href="http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/09/5076188-flash-apps-blessed-by-jobs-for-iphone-other-apple-mobile-devices">"No more talking Flash Trash . . ."</a> Or maybe the source is inspired Martinis for lunch at MSNBC. The official Apple Statement by Apple from <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/09/09statement.html">Apple PR is totally fuzzy on Adobe</a>, like a Martini hangover with a damp sock in it. Ergo PDFs should be fine too after another Martini. Wrong again. There is no mention of Adobe and if Apps with Flash are allowed by Apple, there is still no Flash enabled for websites. New Apps from the Apple App store might include Flash if Apple relaxes enough restrictions on development tools to allow say a Flash-based game App for a new Ping Steve Pong. And <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/03/apples-ping-is-a-spam-magnet/">Steve's Ping was already ponged</a> by spam a day later. So there are no guarantees for Ping Steve Pong in Flash either. But I'd love to see it at the App Store. <br /></p>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-91692571286620681002010-09-04T07:44:00.000-07:002010-09-04T08:17:10.886-07:00Sarah Palin’s breasts are titillating<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJDClYsLNBpUdM4ZL_FRuFwENv3TLQiD7Xx5KDzchhvyoZtiVa8URQNbJuibD6rpTfBOE-8XR2Wb8FtqAMV3geNZymZeHce8pfuH1AfRMDRe1kcw-4i9cg_eh6GeBgU5Pw_I__iinnHok/s1600/redandblackcom_logo_UGeorgia2010.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 91px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513070147628643202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJDClYsLNBpUdM4ZL_FRuFwENv3TLQiD7Xx5KDzchhvyoZtiVa8URQNbJuibD6rpTfBOE-8XR2Wb8FtqAMV3geNZymZeHce8pfuH1AfRMDRe1kcw-4i9cg_eh6GeBgU5Pw_I__iinnHok/s320/redandblackcom_logo_UGeorgia2010.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iRigTDwlvYzH3Zscdukm-Z7z394bA71z4_3rZqPYhojJEChFMgUXSrZ1CX5k4A2p4Dif6jQYfQMo7KPEDut8q6H2V4h_PYmu8sSH__G5wzC0lV5hmb3-2N7FurGPR05JYSaj5Q-WN-W0/s1600/Flickr_2811203527_025e38bd16_b_SarahPalin_Kuwait_edit1_CCasecondhandconjecture2008.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513069859268746690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iRigTDwlvYzH3Zscdukm-Z7z394bA71z4_3rZqPYhojJEChFMgUXSrZ1CX5k4A2p4Dif6jQYfQMo7KPEDut8q6H2V4h_PYmu8sSH__G5wzC0lV5hmb3-2N7FurGPR05JYSaj5Q-WN-W0/s320/Flickr_2811203527_025e38bd16_b_SarahPalin_Kuwait_edit1_CCasecondhandconjecture2008.jpg" /></a><br /><p><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>By Adam Carlson</strong></span><br />Published: June 23, 2010<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Our great national panic can finally come to an end.</span><br /><br />No, not the oil spill — screw the Gulf Coast, forget about the economy and don’t even think of mentioning the wars in the Middle East.<br /><br />I’m talking about Sarah Palin’s breasts.<br /><br />You heard right?<br /><br />They’re real.<br /><br />Drum roll, please.<br /><br />Brace yourself for the collective sigh of relief — the light of the conservative party has not — I repeat, has not — stooped to plastic surgery.<br /><br />This is contrary to a glut of rumors — all stemming from far-left liberals, one assumes — that popped-up following the appearance of a certain Tight White T-shirt Photo.<br /><br />Though the mind wonders: if Palin had gotten a little boost, and if she’d stayed in office long enough to finish up her duly-elected term as governor of Alaska whilst under the knife, would she have written it off as a work expense?<br /><br />“Boobgate is all over the Internet right now because there are a lot of bored, idle bloggers and journalists with nothing better to talk about,” our Lady of Wasilla confessed to Greta Van Susteren during a recent interview.<br /><br />So does that classify me as a bored, idle journalist? Almost certainly.<br /><br />But here’s the thing, Sarah —</p><p><a href="http://www.redandblack.com/2010/06/23/sarah-palin%E2%80%99s-breasts-are-titillating/">Continue reading the June 23, 2010 article from the University of Georgia's <em>Red And Black</em> . . .<br /></a></p>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-24249304716066513872009-11-15T07:53:00.000-08:002009-11-15T09:27:07.936-08:00Gates, Buffett come to Columbia<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizn7S7xfYSsxv_HbhlGi9_taWPZ1vRZiUijUQlgLf0xZzJmVsm_KQk1uf7iCFZL-0Gi0DAmQEBf-Adla_f572fIiZdiQ2RYhueTD_K7Dt639WqLVz9Qo4DZpAVYuc4Rnr_SNUN58LSKeJV/s1600-h/logo_ColumbiaU_ColumbiaDailySpectator2009.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 35px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404368794722401938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizn7S7xfYSsxv_HbhlGi9_taWPZ1vRZiUijUQlgLf0xZzJmVsm_KQk1uf7iCFZL-0Gi0DAmQEBf-Adla_f572fIiZdiQ2RYhueTD_K7Dt639WqLVz9Qo4DZpAVYuc4Rnr_SNUN58LSKeJV/s320/logo_ColumbiaU_ColumbiaDailySpectator2009.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEJVH64gXhnTtK5HlNzXODq3tDxM-k-vyg8xrvGoEIvP8gkk78yzeYJFBDWn0B88Y2couyl4Gz9Xjk0Y7k9ZI-T95YYC1cUy9Be7xiNH7YXshf5rPeEYCAURIxARuF6bKacI1keC6kdyb6/s1600-h/Gates-Buffett_ColumbiaU_ColumbiaDailySpectator_photoEillenBarroso2009.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 266px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404368559598868642" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEJVH64gXhnTtK5HlNzXODq3tDxM-k-vyg8xrvGoEIvP8gkk78yzeYJFBDWn0B88Y2couyl4Gz9Xjk0Y7k9ZI-T95YYC1cUy9Be7xiNH7YXshf5rPeEYCAURIxARuF6bKacI1keC6kdyb6/s400/Gates-Buffett_ColumbiaU_ColumbiaDailySpectator_photoEillenBarroso2009.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Warren Buffett, Business '51, returns to Columbia to chat with students and Bill Gates</span><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">By Gabriela Hempfling</span><br /></strong><br />Published: November 13, 2009<br /><br />On Thursday, the world’s two richest men visited Columbia.<br /><br />Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft Corp., and Warren Buffett, investor-at-large, told students that the worst of the recession had passed. Speaking in Roone Arledge Auditorium, they shared their optimism with students in the Columbia Business School and Earth Institute. Buffett graduated from the Business School in 1951.<br /><br />At the town-hall-style event, CNBC’s Becky Quick moderated a dialogue between the two billionaires and roughly 700 students. Before the discussion began, Quick noted the context of the event. “I do know that these are unsettling times in the economy and the markets and there is a lot of uncertainty in where we stand,” she said. The event was to be broadcast on CNBC as a segment titled “Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great” on Thursday night. [CNBC Video below and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1329393420&play=1">alternate link here</a>]<br /><br /><object id="cnbcplayer" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="400" height="380"><param name="_cx" value="10583"><param name="_cy" value="10054"><param name="FlashVars" value=""><param name="Movie" value="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1329393420/code/cnbcplayershare"><param name="Src" value="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1329393420/code/cnbcplayershare"><param name="WMode" value="Transparent"><param name="Play" value="-1"><param name="Loop" value="-1"><param name="Quality" value="High"><param name="SAlign" value="LT"><param name="Menu" value="-1"><param name="Base" value=""><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="Scale" value="NoScale"><param name="DeviceFont" value="0"><param name="EmbedMovie" value="0"><param name="BGColor" value="000000"><param name="SWRemote" value=""><param name="MovieData" value=""><param name="SeamlessTabbing" value="1"><param name="Profile" value="0"><param name="ProfileAddress" value=""><param name="ProfilePort" value="0"><param name="AllowNetworking" value="all"><param name="AllowFullScreen" value="true"><br /><embed name="cnbcplayer" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" height="380" width="400" quality="best" wmode="transparent" scale="noscale" salign="lt" src="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1329393420/code/cnbcplayershare" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br /></object><br /><br />Neither Buffett nor Gates acknowledged any of this uncertainty. “The economy is sputtering, but we are still at the beginning,” Buffett said. With his recent purchase of the Burlington Railroad, the single largest acquisition in history, Buffett put firm support behind that idea. “The railroads are cost-effective and environmentally friendly; each one supplants 280 trucks,” he reasoned. “If America has a core future, railroads have a core future, and I am willing to bet a lot of money on it—about $34 billion.” . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/11/13/gates-buffett-come-columbia">Continue reading the November 13, 2009 article from Columbia University's the<em> Columbia Daily Spectator </em>. . .<br /></a><br /><a href="http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/">Read <em>the eye</em>, the weekly features and arts magazine of the <em>Columbia Daily Spectator</em> . . </a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-52176018964127087562009-08-21T09:38:00.000-07:002009-09-06T07:39:14.992-07:002009 Freshman's Guide To Beer Pong<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihb5XCjCcX2V3fB1EesN7iMtmav2JQgwZaS5AhDY1j1_BCHbHg_9jFL8V3E18ngnW_Lr9xqCHWCb8_SsXd58Yta7zQr2VIVRlGM-FwLL8FZ0PkFU-zGe-c_AVtqr5shsBJNtp-uVN9lkKj/s1600-h/RITReporter_WinterUnderground_artworkRobertModzelewski2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 308px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihb5XCjCcX2V3fB1EesN7iMtmav2JQgwZaS5AhDY1j1_BCHbHg_9jFL8V3E18ngnW_Lr9xqCHWCb8_SsXd58Yta7zQr2VIVRlGM-FwLL8FZ0PkFU-zGe-c_AVtqr5shsBJNtp-uVN9lkKj/s400/RITReporter_WinterUnderground_artworkRobertModzelewski2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373700438554139698" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Alan Gillis</span><br /><br />Going to college could be a life-threatening experience or about the best thing that ever happened. Basically you decide. To steer through the obstacle course without crashing, check out your college newspaper online before you parachute in as a freshman. Don't jump to any fatal conclusions. The paper ergo the campus could be dull and stupid, urbane, sensible, stuffed with monkeys in suits, friendly, goofy or off the wall. Or all of the above. Resist the temptation, that you've blown it already: I'm in the wrong school! Wait, you'll find out later. Doesn't matter anyway, but looking around the paper and then the campus maze will give you some idea of what you can expect and the operating do's and don'ts you might have heard elsewhere like from your parents or your big brother.<br /><br />Be prepared for confusion and stress, but don't take it seriously. Everybody's going through it. Under all the conflicting emotions, the good and bad decisions, is the classic 3-way student dilemma. In the struggle between social life, grades and growing-up, who's going to win? If you're a Young Republican or a Nerd, you've already made your choices. But you might get a second chance. Socializing and sex is the over-riding factor on any campus. Beer is also big. It's a juggling act where you're bound to break a few plates.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVduSvpMeRGWhDJB-oY3QtsHmpEYVxkJv7x5FOqKcBJkjCNP6-0JLyMDsmw8Uthemb1EQVcu4x2MEafISQwRBM9e-Zfrryix-Tuv_CK7QaFUibzI7WtAt_qX_BkZy2JlgHEGJFk-dpoFPM/s1600-h/BrandonNowakowskiRITReporter_photoMathewWoyak2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVduSvpMeRGWhDJB-oY3QtsHmpEYVxkJv7x5FOqKcBJkjCNP6-0JLyMDsmw8Uthemb1EQVcu4x2MEafISQwRBM9e-Zfrryix-Tuv_CK7QaFUibzI7WtAt_qX_BkZy2JlgHEGJFk-dpoFPM/s200/BrandonNowakowskiRITReporter_photoMathewWoyak2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373700160772076258" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-09/word-on-the-street">RIT left: “Keep ahead, don’t fall behind.” Brandon Nowakowski. RIT right: “If you’re ever invited to anything, accept it.” Ben Vanderberg.</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUOJgk-D17cUGkCCL1o2jE7i4QVVvkpYeXVq-CbnYc6pvc25bPM1oBEfWkPWy8JGSts8Z8RZsNFOklmS6sk_yeVP85QvVjmdLxemRBNyGvYhudLebKtGa1IODvQ-crLdIbdL1RBA3tF94e/s1600-h/BenVanderbergRITReporter_photoMathewWoyak2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUOJgk-D17cUGkCCL1o2jE7i4QVVvkpYeXVq-CbnYc6pvc25bPM1oBEfWkPWy8JGSts8Z8RZsNFOklmS6sk_yeVP85QvVjmdLxemRBNyGvYhudLebKtGa1IODvQ-crLdIbdL1RBA3tF94e/s200/BenVanderbergRITReporter_photoMathewWoyak2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373700257173270946" border="0" /></a><br />If you want it all, you've got to work hard and play hard. Being young and hopefully in good physical shape with a working brain, you could pull it off, unlike mom and dad who've burned that bridge already. If you take their advice at face value you could wind up safe and sorry. If you don't you could flunk out or worse. If you can't resist temptation or you faked it in high school or just scraped through, then load up on Mickey Mouse courses your first year. And good luck.<br /><br />Here's your crib sheet on surviving college from one of the best student newspapers anywhere, the Rochester Institute of Technology's <span style="font-style: italic;">Reporter</span>. Thanks you guys.<br /><br />Click on article title links to continue reading each <span style="font-style: italic;">Reporter</span> story in full. Artwork and photos courtesy RIT <span style="font-style: italic;">Reporter</span>. Mouse-over for credits. Thanks to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Andy Rees</span>, Editor-in-Chief; Artists <span style="font-weight: bold;">Robert Modzelewski</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jamie Douglas</span>; Photographers <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mathew Woyak</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Megan Rossman</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">From the Reporter's RIT Orientation X-File</span><span style="font-size:130%;">s</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHDO7M_v9hyphenhyphen_U7N7NguGe1KekcYY0lgr2tFcBKsZstPxKTkcoK-gDdMd98Txy_7feISipKtbDX_NvJPJ_q7Rxv_o3T75w455jzuoTqaHH-7RU8tKhsBhwbd2On-aTUdRPpfGd7dS2bDUg/s1600-h/RITReporter_logo2_2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 51px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHDO7M_v9hyphenhyphen_U7N7NguGe1KekcYY0lgr2tFcBKsZstPxKTkcoK-gDdMd98Txy_7feISipKtbDX_NvJPJ_q7Rxv_o3T75w455jzuoTqaHH-7RU8tKhsBhwbd2On-aTUdRPpfGd7dS2bDUg/s320/RITReporter_logo2_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373702473128286530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-08/the-man--the-heat--the-fuzz--the---helper"><span style="font-size:180%;">The Man. The</span></a><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-08/the-man--the-heat--the-fuzz--the---helper"><span style="font-size:180%;"> Heat. The Fuz</span></a><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-08/the-man--the-heat--the-fuzz--the---helper"><span style="font-size:180%;">z. T</span></a><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-08/the-man--the-heat--the-fuzz--the---helper"><span style="font-size:180%;">he...Helper?</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YlbFo_rg8PfJqxetrlEbyFXMh4FSfdpOa2-n_jEBQnfjAFweD3gvjuNsNYSR6xT7Kv7KfulL89Z-XVC1ySfBPu9e2h5yt33B5wdq2q3GZBgNkT2rzA8Om3eWB5xxWrQgwNS30DzGJ2r-/s1600-h/GillDePaulaRITReporter_photoMeganRossman2007.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_YlbFo_rg8PfJqxetrlEbyFXMh4FSfdpOa2-n_jEBQnfjAFweD3gvjuNsNYSR6xT7Kv7KfulL89Z-XVC1ySfBPu9e2h5yt33B5wdq2q3GZBgNkT2rzA8Om3eWB5xxWrQgwNS30DzGJ2r-/s400/GillDePaulaRITReporter_photoMeganRossman2007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373699836056447746" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Laura Mandanas</span><br /><br />There’s no escape. Whether they’re busting your parties, nagging you not to ride your bike down the Quarter Mile, and/or plastering your only-semi-illegally parked car with hundreds of dollars worth in tickets, you’re going to run up against our campus law enforcers at some point in time. But it’s not all bad — in fact, there are a lot of really helpful things that Public Safety will do for you! . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alan Gillis adds:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Lock yourself out? Lost something? In trouble? Adopt a Public Safety Officer. </span><span>It depends on your campus</span><span style="font-style: italic;">,</span> but overall there are more security issues in city colleges than at a campus in the country. If you have any concerns, talk to campus security. If there are hot spots, places and times to avoid, they'll tell you. At some colleges you could get into trouble just by walking alone or leaving your frat house door open. Take the same precautions you would anyplace you don't know well. Some campuses have student services where volunteers will pick you up and drive you home or walk with you. You're alone, it's late, it's cold, you're stoned. Get help. If that doesn't work call campus security. Put them and your other emergency numbers on your speed dial.<br /><br /><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-09/student-conduct-process"><span style="font-size:180%;">Things you shouldn’t do but, if you do, try not to get caught</span><br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Kimberly Reeb with Andy Rees</span><br /><br />Stay away from anything illegal: drugs, guns, robbery, and so on.<br /><br />In the words of RIT’s student conduct rules, “Students neither relinquish civil rights nor acquire additional rights by virtue of being within an academic community; they do, however, take on additional responsibilities.”<br /><br />In the 2007-08 school year, the three most common Public Safety referrals to the SCO [Student Conduct Office] centered around alcohol, drugs, and theft.<br /><br />Every incident has a different outcome but, unfortunately, freshmen are most likely to be the ones getting in trouble this year. The 2007-08 year had 1,297 incidences and 39 percent of them were committed by first year students. So have fun, but be smart. . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alan Gillis adds:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> If some misconduct</span> like alcohol and drug use leads to a medical emergency, you have to seek medical help for yourself or anyone who is with you. Since there is some fear seeking help because of legal and other consequences, many institutions have a policy that forgives such misconduct. Check the rules at your own school. Find out what emergency medical facilities there are on your campus. At RIT if it's only alcohol-related, there's room for leniency.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-09/roommate-issues">Roommate </a></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_DaKxd3zlCLSohvKE9P4TiB70Mkg7JoQRTcrrF0fv25uQJwncrNsL9ZHxiVyD_RqWJdMl4KzLM5p9pVw9LSLPc7zNtv4cYVmraHd6YV6nR7fINaEy-ld1BSUpDriFabf54nHVeoQcUaWN/s1600-h/RITReporter_artworkJamieDouglas2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_DaKxd3zlCLSohvKE9P4TiB70Mkg7JoQRTcrrF0fv25uQJwncrNsL9ZHxiVyD_RqWJdMl4KzLM5p9pVw9LSLPc7zNtv4cYVmraHd6YV6nR7fINaEy-ld1BSUpDriFabf54nHVeoQcUaWN/s320/RITReporter_artworkJamieDouglas2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373699700817487186" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-09/roommate-issues">Issues</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Jess Kopitz</span><br /><br />For many incoming freshmen, the most exciting and daunting experience in college is living in the dorms. On the one hand, you get more freedom than ever before: No more curfews or questions about where you’re going and when you’ll be back. On the other hand, you are now living with a stranger. This is the real world and, with it, come rewards and drawbacks.<br /><br />Living with another person in the same room can be taxing no matter how well you get along with them. The truth of the matter is that living in the dorms gives you little to no privacy. A typical dorm room will resemble something like a closet and sharing it with another person may seem like being asked to never change your underwear again: uncomfortable and even unhealthy. . .<br /><br /><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/gender/a-guys-how-to-getting-girls"><span style="font-size:180%;">A Guy's How-To: Getting Girls</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Michael Barbato</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Making the First Move</span><br /><br />If you’ve ever wished the girl you like would do all the work and ask you out, chances are she won’t. 85% of the girls I polled revealed they had never asked a guy out. Most girls won’t make the first move out of fear of being too forward or depriving her would-be suitor of his ‘manly’ prowess. Although it does happen, it isn’t very often, so it is vital to make that first move. . .<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The Approach</span><br /><br />If you’re still using generic pickup lines, I have some magical love potions I’d like to sell you. By the way, neither pick up lines nor love potions work! In fact, pickup lines will hurt your chances; according to the spry young ladies, pickup lines are the most irritating tactics a guy can employ. . .<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Where to Approach</span><br /><br />Watch out for girls in a hurry or busy. Don’t approach a girl when she’s on her way to class or if she’s waitressing at a crowded restaurant. Bars and clubs are well fielded and usually not the best environment to start. Be spontaneous. Approach her in an unexpected place. Go up to her at the library and notice her reading the book you just read or want to read and go from there. . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alan Gillis adds:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Advice for women on getting guys?</span> Perhaps it's a question that doesn't need any big answer. All any girl needs to do is Ask. Guys are like that. 95% of the time that's enough, but if you want more ideas you'll find thousands in <span style="font-style: italic;">Cosmo</span>. Of course ask the right guy and don't come on to him in a tiny halter showing off your big belly over short shorts and fishnet hose in spikes or boots unless that's your usual style. Don't beg either. It's embarrassing for him too. If it doesn't work the first time, try another approach. Guys are dense. They're not expecting a hook-up on short notice, as it rarely happens anyway. When it does, some aren't sure. Are you a tease making the rounds? Does the guy think he's being setup for a dumb joke? Serious or is she going to change her mind before she takes off her socks? Some girlfriend's girlfriend testing him? So try again if you're serious.<br /><br />If all else fails whatever your gender, you need to practice more. Too shy, too slow on the uptake? Need a mega ice breaker? After a string of disappointments, or some success with disaster relationships, you might want to try speed dating. You could find that you've been stuck on your wrong type. Here's a chance to try somebody different. Some campuses offer a free version that might work out. See the Reporter's interesting experiment with speed dating at RIT in the article below.<br /><br /><a href="http://reportermag.com/article/02-13-2009/some-like-it-fast"><span style="font-size:180%;">Speed dating</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Madeleine Villavicencio</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Reporter</span> expanded its brand name into the dating service business by holding our very own invitation-only speed dating event. For this experiment, 18 hopeful singles piled into room 1829 in the Student Alumni Union (SAU) that evening, looking for a match. The night began with the consumption of snacks and refreshments — the Ritz Bits cheese sandwiches were a favorite — as the music of Tiger Idol finalists drifted through the walls of the neighboring Ingle Auditorium, doubling as entertainment for the night. At the same time, participants registered and left contact information with the assigned staff. . .<br /><br />With speed dating, your options cover a wider range of people. Because of its random nature, you will probably meet at least one person you never would have walked up to at a party. . .<br /><br />It isn’t just the quantitative data collected that’s interesting. If you take a look at the match sheets themselves, you start to notice a few things. More than half of the women’s sheets had multiple erasures, meaning they are more likely to change their minds more than once. Men, on the other hand, were more likely to avoid the decision all together by leaving boxes on their sheets blank. In addition, guys are more likely to vote “yes” [for a follow-up date] while girls are more likely to vote “no.” Some marks were darker than others, possibly indicating a greater intensity of like or dislike. . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alan Gillis adds:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Nothing works?</span> Buy a car. Make it available. Drive people around anywhere anytime. Right away you're scoring points big time. No car? Then find your own car guy. Find out how in the article below.<br /><br /><a href="http://reportermag.com/staff/pdfs/2006_09_08.pdf"><span style="font-size:180%;">Triple P: How to Mooch a Ride</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Alex Salsberg</span><br /><br />Hello, freshmen! You are currently enjoying the best moments of college. You like all your nveighbors (in three weeks your floor will be severely cliquey and probably on fire), and you are not yet fat. But to continue the fun, you must befriend a certain someone on your floor. We will call him “Car Guy.”<br /><br />Maybe you thought that RIT’s quarter-mile long campus (complete with an ice cream parlor and a pretend SportsCenter set) would provide you with all the entertainment you needed for five years. But Car Guy knew better. He knew that someday he might actually want to explore the great city of Rochester, with its museums, restaurants and depressing zoo (did you know polar bears can cry?) So, when he found out that freshman were allowed cars, he proudly parked his white Dodge Spirit in B-Lot, which is just outside of Albany.<br /><br />If you learn to take advantage of Car Guy effectively, you could enjoy a (literal) free ride through RIT. Just follow these three handy tips (I call it Triple P) . . .<br /><br />Don't Forget: <a href="http://reportermag.com/article/orientation-08/how-to-spot-an-rit-rookie"><span style="font-size:180%;">Balance is Best </span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Joe McLaughlin</span><br /><br />Most things are fine in moderation, but some things don’t lend themselves to “just a little bit.” World of Warcraft is the perfect example. Keep gaming within sane limits. Leave time for schoolwork and interacting with real people. Don’t, however, lock yourself in your room and do nothing but calculus. Leave time for goofing off. After all, you’re in college. You’re never going to have another chance to duct tape a friend’s chair to the ceiling. (Hint: The chairs in the dorms take a roll and a half.) . . .<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZhkbZWZbsffYxM8I7vL9F0NT-DlK2asmc2y2JvHKO7nxy_Hgh4QVQmYD8oTPUaBVNv14BFB82Gtxz8O8X0WLwJWuBXeEV2bw95kcc5jB9I8d54KPzQZBriy5wRRm_VJ9DZwwDkKD6u8l/s1600-h/1243_maxsize_800_800_DistorterAprilFoolsIssue_cover-art_RIT-Reporter_2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 251px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZhkbZWZbsffYxM8I7vL9F0NT-DlK2asmc2y2JvHKO7nxy_Hgh4QVQmYD8oTPUaBVNv14BFB82Gtxz8O8X0WLwJWuBXeEV2bw95kcc5jB9I8d54KPzQZBriy5wRRm_VJ9DZwwDkKD6u8l/s320/1243_maxsize_800_800_DistorterAprilFoolsIssue_cover-art_RIT-Reporter_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373702642910617954" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">And Make Friends</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alan Gillis adds:</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> If you cli</span><span style="font-style: italic;">ck with some</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> people</span>, make more room for them in your life. College probably is your best opportunity to make life-long friends who share your interests and your ideas. Once they're on their career path you'll find that you're all still in the same ballpark. You could wind up helping them or being helped yourself. Especially if you're a risk taker and are going into a tough game like filmmaking where contacts are essential. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg became friends at UCLA where they made a pact to help each other. It worked.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Reporter's <span style="font-style: italic;">Distorter</span>: Brain Humping On Campus</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Alan Gillis</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><br /></span>If the Reporter delivers about the best in student journalism, candid, relevant and interesting, other papers often fail. Even their dirty laundry stories look fairly clean, often apologetic too if a few stains remain to sully the old school name. Not at the <span style="font-style: italic;">Reporter</span>. Why the Reporter will invent dirty laundry if it needs to, but that's for the annual April Fools Issue, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Distorter</span>.<br /><br />This year's Sexy Issue reached the limit of can-u-f******take-it, at least for <a href="http://reportermag.com/article/pulled-distorter-available-exclusively-at-reporter-office">RIT Admin, which pulled the magazine</a> and closed down the Reporter's website for awhile. You can't find it anywhere except under the Editor's bed and Reporter Offices, but if you know where to look, there is now a <a href="http://issuu.com/reportermag/docs/distorter/1?mode=embed&layout=grey">secret website archive of a flip-through copy of Distorter 09</a>.<br /><br />It's not for the squeamish. Totally grossed-out humor on sex at its worst, but you get the same insane bits in your daily newspaper in small doses. They're brave at the Reporter, but they were slapped down hard for it. OK, Distorter 09 was trash, and it stunk, but it was also an attempt at satire. Still marginally better than Fellini's <span style="font-style: italic;">Satyricon</span>, which wasn't very funny and made a lot of money. Fellini squeaked through in theaters along with Passolini that other Italian 30 years ago. Why not Distorter 09, an obvious First Amendment issue? Not that the case went anywhere either, not blazing freedom of speech for college kids. Imagine all the lawyers and the pain it would take to drag dirty Distorter 09 into court for a line-by-line dry cleaning. <span style="font-style: italic;">No your Honor, that horse in question was after the fact, from Oklahoma in USA Today.</span><br /><br />For another more typical<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_FJmEUyLA5_QCopD0BrWYeC9UwdDsYONvTkfCWZGPEGl7g8rQ5PfwBLYyIUd4I5-FSqeFfc8FiJiDPl85FWduXSkgSMM7zq_DPfjIvjTceP51SZRWUOb5wH0rREKV7-Ru5dTk9etM7j6/s1600-h/RITReporter_TigersStillReadyToPlay_2008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_FJmEUyLA5_QCopD0BrWYeC9UwdDsYONvTkfCWZGPEGl7g8rQ5PfwBLYyIUd4I5-FSqeFfc8FiJiDPl85FWduXSkgSMM7zq_DPfjIvjTceP51SZRWUOb5wH0rREKV7-Ru5dTk9etM7j6/s320/RITReporter_TigersStillReadyToPlay_2008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373699008845673218" border="0" /></a> and less subversive Distorter there's last year's edition. <a href="http://reportermag.com/issue/distorter-08"><span style="font-style: italic;">Distorter 08</span></a>, more your raunchy <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t17FD-rDnA0"><span style="font-style: italic;">Animal House</span></a> revisited: <a href="http://reportermag.com/article/distorter-08/sports-desk-beer-pong">Sports Desk: Beer Pong, Bro! Can you re-rack that?<br /><br /></a>If there's a lesson here at RIT for Distorter fans or freshmen, its no flashing on campus, not even at the run through halftime at a Tigers' game. No Tigers, no streaking. When RIT's football team went 0-8-1 in 1977, the <a href="http://reportermag.com/article/09-12-2008/undefeated-since-1977">Tigers were permanently canceled for losing</a>. One lousy year since 1922? Maybe some Distorters are still mad about it.<br /><br />But there's hope. You can always join the <a href="http://reportermag.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Reporter</span></a> staff for some laughs or your own college paper. If it stinks, all the more reason. They need you badly.Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-65718623050334790702009-07-13T10:59:00.000-07:002009-07-13T13:25:18.074-07:00Jacob’s Foot: Remembering Michael Jackson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0R0KsxFYkJo2hsu1Pbw8OmaWHnz8GApc4_xNQw3F51da9jnWvJxfy0SvmnjWETkVhIf45C95xBy4S9LpeaWehOBaBFmjGZdQ-Z06KYqIAOUrtDUgJxVkZ7ygbvQpmMjDzpSmyQ6PiBUsg/s1600-h/QuadBlogs_logo_TheQuad_WestChesterUniversity2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 47px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0R0KsxFYkJo2hsu1Pbw8OmaWHnz8GApc4_xNQw3F51da9jnWvJxfy0SvmnjWETkVhIf45C95xBy4S9LpeaWehOBaBFmjGZdQ-Z06KYqIAOUrtDUgJxVkZ7ygbvQpmMjDzpSmyQ6PiBUsg/s320/QuadBlogs_logo_TheQuad_WestChesterUniversity2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358021862700151906" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOpwwaNAovtSu6zGM91OYUEvpM6bHzh6WT-ZM6coJESgfPD4F_Mz1RX4D6s_DfdN7MSkiYiRQs4_UqdUwaLCCd8qPAWIFCDM6j1E_KORrPKEuL-FgerA0Fx_606zkgzBgRMAgb6ZHDvpep/s1600-h/3662242451_784c09c328_b_MichaelJacksonTributeSpain_CCDesir%C3%A9eDelgado2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOpwwaNAovtSu6zGM91OYUEvpM6bHzh6WT-ZM6coJESgfPD4F_Mz1RX4D6s_DfdN7MSkiYiRQs4_UqdUwaLCCd8qPAWIFCDM6j1E_KORrPKEuL-FgerA0Fx_606zkgzBgRMAgb6ZHDvpep/s320/3662242451_784c09c328_b_MichaelJacksonTributeSpain_CCDesir%C3%A9eDelgado2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358021566308691250" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I can’t help it. I know every major media publication is providing massive coverage for Michael Jackson. I know there are timelines, retrospectives, etc available at every major media and news website. I feel like I have to write about Michael Jackson though. A little something at least.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Chris Monigle</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lost Blog</span><br />Published: June 26, 2009<br /><br />His music was the music of my childhood. That’s no exaggeration. It was Michael Jackson, The Jackson 5, or the Jacksons. I listened to his music before I ever became aware of rock ‘n roll, before I purchased a Marcy Playground or Matchbox 20 CD in ‘97 or 3EB in the summer of 1998. His music informed what my later tastes would be as well. There’s really no going back once you hear “Off The Wall” or “Thriller.” Those two albums are near perfection. “Thriller” suffers from one weak track. The rest is gold after gold after gold. I opened a piece I wrote on Carolyn Leonhart with a quote from Shakespeare about the charms of music. There really is magic in music. There’s some intangible transcendental quality to music, in music. It exists within the creation. On those early solo albums, he combined disco (but good disco not that ABBA nonsense) with the soul of Motown and R&B. We all know “Thriller,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” “Rock With You” and a bunch of other songs that are too many to list. We can throw out adjective after adjective to describe the power of his music but in the end his music is indescribable and that’s what makes it as great, magical, and transcendent as it is. He just had the ability to tap into that part of our brain, something that is inherently within us and open it up (i hope you followed me there and understand what I mean). . . --<a href="http://newshammer.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span></a> 13/07/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.wcuquad.com/2009/06/26/jacobs-foot-remembering-michael-jackson/">Continue reading the June 26, 2009 article [plus more Jackson videos] from West Chester University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Quad</span> on their sister site, <span style="font-style: italic;">Quad Blogs</span>.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.wcuquad.com/home/">Check out <span style="font-style: italic;">The Quad</span> here.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-65100592345787431222009-07-07T09:28:00.000-07:002010-08-23T13:27:22.957-07:00Michael Jackson: Dead Like Elvis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTtfUWzp9m-vzUrISzyyt1zxx4V-0ny0batZA5c-WlHdGdm3rUMaXwF1Nl9daLU9FkwRQDjMf5RuwQnsKk3bnzA4aLTNp16IStJJdx0XDql4wSw9OpQK-Ianf1mHy926ssjYrn7KBMWQ/s1600-h/3666627206_e8334740af_o_MichaelJacksonTributeOslo_CCOlastuen2009.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 229px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355549726193646370" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTtfUWzp9m-vzUrISzyyt1zxx4V-0ny0batZA5c-WlHdGdm3rUMaXwF1Nl9daLU9FkwRQDjMf5RuwQnsKk3bnzA4aLTNp16IStJJdx0XDql4wSw9OpQK-Ianf1mHy926ssjYrn7KBMWQ/s320/3666627206_e8334740af_o_MichaelJacksonTributeOslo_CCOlastuen2009.jpg" /></a>The media storm around Michael Jackson is less about him and more about the media monster that makes and breaks our pop icons. We still don't know how or why he died. All we have is a lot of confusion from a lot of insane coverage.<br /><br />Armies of journalists swoop down on him again. Drugs and death, the new postmortem, not quite as sensational as ruining him and his reputation with unsubstantiated charges of extreme moral depravity, the boy-man-god a pedophile, but drugs and death a suitable followup and a glorious media fire for the final end of a fallen star.<br /><br />Questions, a lot of questions and conflicting and misleading answers and more doubt and misery. A lot of really great friends who weren't there for him. A lot of questions nobody asks. Journalists paid to ask them, but they don't.<br /><br />Police slow to see that a simple death of the King of Pop doesn't make sense. Joe Jackson apparently,<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"> always say apparently when covering M</span><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">ichael</span>, Michael's father ordering 2 moving vans to remove Michael's effects from the scene of his death, a rented mansion belonging to the Nation of Islam, rented at 3 or 4 times the going market rate for $100,000 a month. Janet, Michael's sister, dropping by the same day, but what was taken away from a possible crime scene two days after Michael dies? Does she know, does Joe estranged from Michael to boot, have any authority to mess things up for the inevitable police investigation?<br /><br />Then a belated appearance by LA police confiscating 2 large bags of drugs after the moving vans have been long gone.<br /><br />Then later still, the DEA shuffles in after nobody knows what happened at Michael's mansion before, during and after Michael's death, what was removed, what might have been planted later.<br /><br />A lot of Diprivan found by the DEA, missed by the LAPD, unlabeled, IV anesthesia used only to knockout a patient for an operation, but what was it doing there? Michael couldn't sleep without it sometimes?<br /><br />What d<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMr5A7_YMar8yYxr_1k8N7rVQiVNdqJ2aw9UQQmhCx5i2cMfuhBQSkWb6F5F0GvHz4Vv6AvNYtfPMs3_-jf2pBvh0pdIsA9wVhs_caUAEKgd0o5bHkoHWcDJ4bwi0Lp6lY9V4N8exMn10/s1600-h/3689586605_cb4f030f97_b_MichaelJacksonTributeWarsaw_edit1_CCndemi2009.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 256px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355549420377769266" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMr5A7_YMar8yYxr_1k8N7rVQiVNdqJ2aw9UQQmhCx5i2cMfuhBQSkWb6F5F0GvHz4Vv6AvNYtfPMs3_-jf2pBvh0pdIsA9wVhs_caUAEKgd0o5bHkoHWcDJ4bwi0Lp6lY9V4N8exMn10/s320/3689586605_cb4f030f97_b_MichaelJacksonTributeWarsaw_edit1_CCndemi2009.jpg" /></a>octor would prescribe it for insomnia when a small overdose is easily fatal, when ordinary doses are also sometimes fatal? It happens under ideal conditions in hospital operating rooms with an anaesthesiologist present monitoring vital signs.<br /><br />Some very close to Michael say he wasn't a druggie, abhorred and never used recreational drugs and only took prescription drugs like anyone else would. Started with Pepsi, the hair on fire commercial, later a broken leg, broken vertebrae, performance injuries, then the painful cosmetic surgery and possibly skin cancer. And beat up badly twice for months by the media on unsubstantiated child molestation charges that would depress anyone. More and more people close to him thought he had a prescription drug problem. If he did, no one seems to have actually caught him doing drugs. One of his former bodyguards, <span id="intelliTXT">Matt Fiddes</span>, says he and Uri Geller often confiscated <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529818,00.html">drugs and needles lying around</a>. And Michael was in rehab once though what for exactly? The same people who say he was addicted to prescription drugs like the TV journalist <a href="http://www.theinsider.com/news/2312114_Diane_Dimond_on_Michael_Jackson">Diane Dimond</a> who broke the pedophilia allegations, say he also had a big drinking problem back then.<br /><br />The more you repeat a story, the more people believe it, true or not, as the media and psychologists must know. If that's hard to swallow since we think we're not so easily fooled, remember when disinformation and propaganda were a daily routine made famous by Lenin who invented the formula: Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.<br /><br />Even easier to smear anybody if you use unnamed sources. According to a close, but unnamed member of the Jackson family Michael took <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/26/jackson-family-demerol-shot-caused-death/">daily s</a><a href="http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/26/jackson-family-demerol-shot-caused-death/">hots of the super-painkiller Demerol and had a shot an hour before he died.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20090706/en_celeb_eo/132716">Anyone see needle tracks on Michael's arms? An unnamed Jackson family source did.</a> Noted on the autopsy? No info released yet. An unnamed source commenting on the body, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529226,00.html?mrp=">"surprised at how healthy Jackson was."</a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdN_T5v-Ttx1uDhfTSE513XEpXUVZh56Vv7G6pai4SEm-DlOjMLnISBR-805QMJvf_kTQBa980bZaLBaz-1lJm4cTm5iOw7dGr2o1aw7oCiXQVOu83Lg6jr0xFTia7dXWS4MPYVIzTss/s1600-h/3669540847_4694da1de1_b_MichaelJacksonTributeHollywood_edit1_CClobraumeister2009.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 330px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355549115355282626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdN_T5v-Ttx1uDhfTSE513XEpXUVZh56Vv7G6pai4SEm-DlOjMLnISBR-805QMJvf_kTQBa980bZaLBaz-1lJm4cTm5iOw7dGr2o1aw7oCiXQVOu83Lg6jr0xFTia7dXWS4MPYVIzTss/s400/3669540847_4694da1de1_b_MichaelJacksonTributeHollywood_edit1_CClobraumeister2009.jpg" /></a>Unnamed sources always seem to be very sure of themselves. Some very close to Michael say he lived on prescription drugs. Look how thin he was, how little he ate. Then one of the people he knew best, <a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6591237.ece">Grace Rwaramba</a> from Rwanda on staff as an assistant and promoted to nanny his kids was reported as saying by <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Times Online</span> that she often had to pump his stomach when he mixed his drugs. On a news video later she denied she ever said that she did, didn't know how to pump a stomach either. Then she went further in print, saying <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mallika-chopra/statement-by-grace-rwaram_b_223471.html">she never even spoke to <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Times Online</span></a>. Her full rebuttal to the long and juicy <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Times Online</span> article was published in The Huffington Post.<br /><br />The two autopsies and the lab tests will finally tell us something about the cause of death when they're released in a month or so. For now, who and what can you believe?<br /><br />Could Michael have been saved? The AEG concert promoter for Michael's comeback series in London, <a href="http://www.accesshollywood.com/inside-michael-jacksons-this-is-it-rehearsal_video_1132159?__source=omg">Randy Phillips and the tour's director, Kenny Ortega</a>, both said he was in great shape the night before he died. The AEG <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">This Is It</span> video of Michael's rehearsal at the LA Staples Center 2 nights before he died [also at the above link] confirms he wasn't on a doped-up downer going into London. If he could have been saved, the only one who could have done it on the spot was his cardiologist, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090628/ap_on_en_mu/us_michael_jackson">Dr Conrad Murray</a>, who tried to resuscitate Michael when he found him collapsed in bed that catastrophic day in LA's Holmby Hills, still alive.<br /><br />But Murray the cardiologist failed at CPR, and there was some delay in calling an ambulance. How long was that? <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/26/michael-jackson-drugs-doctor-missing">40 minutes until the ambulance arrived says The Guardian</a>. Murray couldn't find a phone, but he had his own cell phone, but he didn't call because he didn't know the address where he himself was living, doctor in residence at Michael's Holmby Hills Estate, that any goofball at 911 would be able to track down by a street name or 5 blocks from you know where. Stupid shit if you're Michael Jackson's doctor and you're doing CPR on Michael's too soft a bed for CPR when Michael should be on the floor as the 911 Operator reminded him on the phone when Michael's security guy finally called 911. Stupid shit when you're supposed to be a cardiologist and you're not Board certified, letting that lapse last year, when you don't pay your debts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to creditors who were after you because your heart clinic was flatlining, like Michael who died under your care.<br /><br />If CPR doesn't work it's a bloody emergency and you get help. Murray said he never gave drugs like Demerol to Michael, but if Michael took an accidental overdose himself of something or other, CPR isn't going to help. You pump his stomach, you get him to a hospital for life support, a heart-lung machine, maybe a total blood transfusion when you suspect poisoning by unknown drugs, but when the ambulance came the paramedics still did CPR for another 45 minutes, though the nearest hospital was 6 minutes away. Stupid shit, but shit happens when you're stupid.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqbbrX5GVdwkecb3AVymREe65DUYE3_LwyJlD0Xvf6xMwqi16lSnX-9Lzt0w30o3ZhB0bCsN8RcH8w0RWxsQ2D9wwYSLenXXf832foHdY_3v0IhZtulpKXqMEXE7S93NJxe_OFOC3Mfs/s1600-h/3681401964_faeb2caa69_b_MichaelJacksonTributeMoscow_CCKolinZ2009.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355548883410628306" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqbbrX5GVdwkecb3AVymREe65DUYE3_LwyJlD0Xvf6xMwqi16lSnX-9Lzt0w30o3ZhB0bCsN8RcH8w0RWxsQ2D9wwYSLenXXf832foHdY_3v0IhZtulpKXqMEXE7S93NJxe_OFOC3Mfs/s400/3681401964_faeb2caa69_b_MichaelJacksonTributeMoscow_CCKolinZ2009.jpg" /></a>The LAPD tow away Murray's BMW that same day, oddly not really his anyway. Great. Smart. Could be full of AMA Journals. Why not check the mansion first before 2 vans clear out a mountain of potential evidence in broad daylight with news cameras rolling?<br /><br />The first sensible thing Murray does is he gets a lawyer. Then he talks to the LAPD for 3 hours. No one says what happened, just that he was cooperative. Not a suspect. Yeah, great.<br /><br />A little later <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20090706/en_celeb_eo/132716">Dr Deepak Chopra</a> talks to Larry King on CNN. He says Michael asked him for Oxycontin, another major painkiller back in 2005 and Deepak refused. Deepak warned Michael about getting hooked on prescription pain meds, but Michael didn't want to talk about it, didn't return his calls later. Deepak talked around the problem with Michael so he could stay in touch with him. Said to Larry that there were plenty of enablers in LA, doctors who liked to hang around celebrities and prescribe whatever narcotics they wanted. No shortage either of plastic surgeons I'd add, who turned Michael into a freak.<br /><br />With all the bullshit flying, was Deepak right about Michael? If Michael had his own enablers would he bother Deepak about an easily obtainable prescription drug? With a lot on his mind, with things going badly since the embarrassing Bashir documentary and new allegations suddenly surfacing, Michael then was in over his head in the biggest fight of his life. $18 Million in legal fees for the child molestation case that consumed the nation and Michael too. Not guilty on all counts. Maybe all Michael wanted was a little help from a friend he was staying with to numb his pain? Michael was a child after all, as everyone who knew him well always said.<br /><br />But then there's another screaming media report I saw on TV a few days ago, but oddly not archived on the corporate website, that said Michael was spending $48,000 a month on prescriptions and owed his pharmacy $100,000 when he died. But if true why isn't this big story plastered everywhere? Hope somebody at the DEA has been watching the megaTV investigation for leads. Can't be sure of that either after the LAPD apparently missed the televised Big Joe Jackson Moving Day.<br /><br />If that's really $48,000 a month for Michael's drugs that's way more than 2 bags full collected by the LAPD. Enough to stuff an SUV every month and even so, how much can a single human being consume? 20 tabs of Demerol per day would turn you into a cataleptic couch potato for less than $1200 a month.<br /><br />What's known? What's proven? Nothing really. Dead like Elvis.<br /><br />Michael was married for awhile to Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley. She said Michael told her years ago he was worried he'd end up dead like Elvis. <a href="http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=42291868&blogId=497035326">"He Knew" she wrote on <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">MySpace</span></a> the day after Michael died. A premonition, a guess, or fate? More questions, no answers.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUBbGSiEcvAbbmjkQkOR3u8QBw7wWL_phxbmjRP4yTa_Dq0xibfJLpBn2MWOWQqRjeNsINgjmAThCJ5IoAUEadSbDsA0mm-jqWwVy8Eo3T8zNvFhCNM63TS-jS8kbC-2-L4_SkyOqX8Gc/s1600-h/3663998208_2b3189422e_b_MichaelJacksonTributeHollywood_edit1_CCpixelparfait2009.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355548410626382722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUBbGSiEcvAbbmjkQkOR3u8QBw7wWL_phxbmjRP4yTa_Dq0xibfJLpBn2MWOWQqRjeNsINgjmAThCJ5IoAUEadSbDsA0mm-jqWwVy8Eo3T8zNvFhCNM63TS-jS8kbC-2-L4_SkyOqX8Gc/s400/3663998208_2b3189422e_b_MichaelJacksonTributeHollywood_edit1_CCpixelparfait2009.jpg" /></a>Michael Jackson's public funeral/ceremonial is set for tomorrow Tuesday 10AM Los Angeles time at the Staples Center. 1.6 million people applied for 20,000 free tickets, but all the major U.S. TV networks are covering it. If you're abroad and don't have access, you should be able to catch it on the Internet, on <a href="http://www.eonline.com/">E! Online</a> and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=3">CNN Live</a>.<br /><br />--Alan Gillis<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Michael Jackson Videos</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><br /><br /><object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5354890&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5354890&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="225" width="400"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5354890">Moonwalkers</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/wvs">Sam Javanrouh</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>. Toronto, the night after Michael's death.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /><object width="400" height="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OdcytuKhVQo&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OdcytuKhVQo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="260" width="400"></embed></object><br /><br />From AEG, a hot promo video in advance of the London shows on the casting and rehearsals for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdcytuKhVQo"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">This Is It</span> [alternate link]</a> at the LA Staples Center.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BWSpkzArgVQ&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BWSpkzArgVQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="260" width="400"></embed></object><br /><br />From AEG, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWSpkzArgVQ">a last look at Michael [alternate link]</a> from the LA Staples Center rehearsal 2 nights before he died.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">*****UPDATE July 10, 2009</span><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8143756.stm"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">BBC: Jackson foul play 'not ruled out'</span></a><br /><br />The head of Los Angeles police has refused to rule out murder in the investigation into the death of singer Michael Jackson, two weeks ago. . . .</p><p><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">*****UPDATE June 25, 2010 One Year Later</span><br /><br /><object width="380" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7069344&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7069344&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="225" width="380"></embed></object></p><p><span style="font-size:180%;">LaToya 2009 Tribute to June 25, 2010</span></p><p>A day in the life of the <a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100623/en_nm/us_jackson">Michael Jackson Legend</a> lights a fire on TV with a dozen tribute shows and interviews starting 8AM Friday. NYC Radio kicks in right through the weekend with live shows from the Apollo Friday afternoon with the Rev Al Sharpton's Tribute on <a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://www.wbls.com/">WBLS 107.5 FM (listen live)</a>, then at 9PM "Throwback Comes to Harlem" on WRKS 98.7 FM (no Internet live feed, but watch their <a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://www.987kissfm.com/index.aspx">MJ videos on KISS FM TV</a>).<br /><br />Try <a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://www.mtv.com/">MTV</a> in between for "Michael Jackson Top 10 Video Countdown" 5-6:30PM, and "Michael Jackson's Influence" 6:30PM. Here's the full <a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/06/24/2010-06-24_michaels_fans_hit_the_jaxpot_lotsa_tributes_to_1year_anny.html">Jackson Friday TV/Radio schedule</a>.<br /><br /><a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_jackson_cemetery">In Los Angeles</a> fans will be making a quiet pilgrimage to nearby Forest Lawn cemetery, though the mausoleum will be open only for family and their guests.<br /><br /><a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6114160-journalist-flood-michael-jacksons-childhood-home">In Gary Indiana</a>, Michael's mother Katherine will dedicate a monument to her son outside the old family home where the Jackson Five started out. A candelight vigil follows with the song "We are the World".<br /><br /></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhly-1fXf4gUgW4XMEmdPIUeftZjYqnUjZ1rTv6YrlxL8Nsu66MlmpDwvVjErJFLH7XQZL7fwgglBmx7Id0-zxmkK6VQn9O0UxAc6nK6eKQCBDBfZZKzTH7LumJR2tWTXTapMIROg0qD8QC/s1600-h/15324332_MichaelJacksonStaplesCenterRehearsal_viaSkyNews_%C2%A9AEG2009.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: pointer" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354393735304452802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhly-1fXf4gUgW4XMEmdPIUeftZjYqnUjZ1rTv6YrlxL8Nsu66MlmpDwvVjErJFLH7XQZL7fwgglBmx7Id0-zxmkK6VQn9O0UxAc6nK6eKQCBDBfZZKzTH7LumJR2tWTXTapMIROg0qD8QC/s400/15324332_MichaelJacksonStaplesCenterRehearsal_viaSkyNews_%C2%A9AEG2009.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Michael Jackson: A Second Life</span><br /><br />From the patchy, inconsistent and conflicting media reports on the death of Michael Jackson, that were better at knocking him down while destroying his reputation in a similar frenzy not so long ago, what do you get? Enough confusion to spin out his tragic death for million$ more. Sorry Michael. A year later and "<a style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)" href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/24/michael-jackson-what-s-left-behind.html">What's Left Behind</a>" we're nowhere near the truth. But the legend lives on.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Michael-Jackson-Rehearsal-Footage-Two-Days-Before-Death/Video/200907115328330?lpos=video_Article_Related_Content_Region_3&lid=VIDEO_15328330_Michael_Jackson%3A_Rehearsal_Footage_Two_Days_Before_Death"><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)">See Jackson perform in this clean no yakyak video 2 nights before his death at the Staples Center LA rehearsal.</span></a><br /><br />Since then Jackson videos on Youtube and even official promos of the Staples rehearsals have been taken down by the moneymen. Buy the CD, see the movie, get the the DVD. But Jackson fans keep uploading new stuff like this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECKL2YqD-gE"><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)">Jackson concert mix</span></a> (sorry deleted) but <a style="COLOR: rgb(51,102,255)" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofoNnRraKg">watch this one</a>.<br /><br />On the official <a href="http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/videos"><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)">This Is It movie site</span></a>, there's a nice surprise. Watch a clean stack of Tributes and oldie Jackson videos like They Don't Care About Us, Thriller, Beat It and more.<br /><br /><object width="380" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-IkRsyLjqD4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-IkRsyLjqD4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="300" width="380"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><a href="http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/news/preview-beat-it-demo-michael-jacksons-it-album-available-1026"><span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)">On michaeljackson.com</span> </a>there's another bonus. Listen to some great audio demos on this link that starts up with a fabulous a cappella Beat It and then click for more tracks from the new This Is It CD. Finally everybody's right. The London show would have been impossible to beat.</span><br /><br />--Alan Gillis/ <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">NewsHammer</span>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-17648342067729804972009-06-11T11:39:00.000-07:002009-06-11T12:31:22.711-07:00The Guardian of the truth<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJTF2gmRNqI-P-Yo3DvteDZzXzesvEykwdnxj-wZ0KEyzKqEmJ2RBpIymhYvgTdeiNu3Kizw5ywvCT7Y5EeCRHAvgkxzOwzlcpb6nAEJaHYWf0USGQdbE9z5Df2nSp5t7naw5de55J-_U/s1600-h/TheStudent_logo_UEdinburgh2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 66px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJTF2gmRNqI-P-Yo3DvteDZzXzesvEykwdnxj-wZ0KEyzKqEmJ2RBpIymhYvgTdeiNu3Kizw5ywvCT7Y5EeCRHAvgkxzOwzlcpb6nAEJaHYWf0USGQdbE9z5Df2nSp5t7naw5de55J-_U/s320/TheStudent_logo_UEdinburgh2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346143366481796898" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7bFEC4xuYRuzJTPUm9p94NeHXeBbFFY4VGow0gBGCLIZxe0ehvc2j5jSCOC9KD9-zZXfI_RgVy_fOt7kxdJnasRh4zVdnmFDRacZwHF4LJSkWobejQ7NZUG_tzBklnQmlS-0wG7fJXCoW/s1600-h/FlatEarthNews_cover-art_NickDavies_Vintage2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 203px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7bFEC4xuYRuzJTPUm9p94NeHXeBbFFY4VGow0gBGCLIZxe0ehvc2j5jSCOC9KD9-zZXfI_RgVy_fOt7kxdJnasRh4zVdnmFDRacZwHF4LJSkWobejQ7NZUG_tzBklnQmlS-0wG7fJXCoW/s320/FlatEarthNews_cover-art_NickDavies_Vintage2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346143090500535602" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">More than ever before, the media is being controlled by those who have most money, power and influence, Guardian veteran Nick Davies tells Lee Bunce</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Lee Bunce</span><br />Published: September 26, 2008<br /><br />You can’t believe everything you read in the papers - but what if we can scarcely believe any of it? That is the conclusion of Flat Earth News, the devastating new book by distinguished journalist Nick Davies, an explosive expose of the inner workings of the global press.<br /><br /><br />Working primarily at The Guardian for over 30 years, Davies’ investigations into everything from drugs policy to failing schools have put him amongst the most respected reporters of his generation, winning him numerous awards along the way. But in his latest book he investigates the profession that made him - with some truly alarming results.<br /><br />Davies is puzzled by how British newspapers consistently follow a conservative ideology when there is no state censorship.<br /><br />“I discovered that the average Fleet Street reporter is now filling three times as much print space as they were in 1985. This means on average they have only a third of the time for each story.<br /><br />“Essentially reporters are no longer able to do the things they need to do to do their job effectively. They’re not out there finding stories, making contacts, or even checking facts. They’re just recycling second hand information - what I call churnalism.”<br /><br />Davies research found that a staggering 54% of British news stories sampled were PR produced.<br /><br />“More than half of the news stories in the best newspapers in the country are being written and produced by PR people acting for the government or corporations - that can’t be right.<br /><br />“A second piece of analysis of more than two thousand UK news stories from four quality newspapers, plus the influential Daily Mail, showed that the central facts in the stories sampled hadn’t been thoroughly checked.<br /><br />“You think you would find the answer is 100% because that’s what journalism is. The answer was 12% - a frightening conclusion.<br /><br />“This is what happens when you don’t have time to do your job properly. Journalists end up recycling copy from press agencies and PR product, neither of which are reliable sources of information about the world.” . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.studentnewspaper.org/features/79-the-guardian-of-the-truth">Continue reading the September 26, 2008 article from the University of Edinburgh's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Student </span>. . .</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-19055887583260575602009-06-07T10:21:00.000-07:002009-06-11T11:27:35.804-07:00Class Of '09: The Economics Of What Next?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMTNF2DaMEOxRrNC1508_Ume_lTQOpGpxplvrqcdGuY5R1VTtKDHIJpqnjPYihKYKL5n0OXVFge3UEhJVPl_Xb3bNV2EKZRURfb0Tk8gvrEnZTU_R9Mm8Y2-daCSEmkGD_gfdd9rSkVej6/s1600-h/3552637893_dbee3086c4_o_Class09GraduationUNMSchoolOfArchitecture_edit1_CCMansuriImran2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMTNF2DaMEOxRrNC1508_Ume_lTQOpGpxplvrqcdGuY5R1VTtKDHIJpqnjPYihKYKL5n0OXVFge3UEhJVPl_Xb3bNV2EKZRURfb0Tk8gvrEnZTU_R9Mm8Y2-daCSEmkGD_gfdd9rSkVej6/s400/3552637893_dbee3086c4_o_Class09GraduationUNMSchoolOfArchitecture_edit1_CCMansuriImran2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344713236014278770" border="0" /></a>If you've graduated, here's Catch 22. You might have done everything right or wrong or half-way, but you won't know the results 'til later. By then you'll have your failure options open and a chance or two to screw up some more. About everybody's in the same boat in case you're worried. With a bit of luck you'll succeed in something or other.<br /><br />It's not an overly pessimistic view according to both Joseph Heller and the better known, but ficticious Murphy of Murphy's Law. But they didn't invent the absurd. For all you non-English Majors, and some of those too who skipped classical allusions, you won't recall this 2500 year old Greek chestnut: "Call no man happy until he is dead." It's not the first citation of absurdity in human history, but you could Google back further and write a dissertation yourself if you're going nowhere on <span style="font-style: italic;">Punctuation in Middle English</span>.<br /><br />Sounds like a degree isn't much of a guarantee. Depends. Sure, Harvard beats Okiedokie Law School and even if you have no aptitude for law as a lawyer, it won't matter, except to your clients who'll never know that lousy lawyers graduate too from Harvard OMG. Always room for one more lawyer too. So there is a future at least in prestigious degrees and the Bar. Make that a Whisky Bar.<br /><br />If you're in a serious quandary about what to do now, I beg your pardon. I've been there myself. Oddly I never got any good advice either. Of course good advice can be wrong, so luckily I didn't have to go through that. Bad advice was the big thing. It was everywhere.<br /><br />The best bad advice I ever got at university was from three profs who independently agreed that there was no future in teaching as the competition was fierce, openings few, and even if you got in, tenure would probably be dangled forever like a carrot, leading you deeper and deeper into the infernal muck of extremely petty university politics on campus and the equally absurd descent into a meaningless social life at home, entertaining and toadying colleagues to death to score some points before you were dismissed for a trifle. Something downright Dickensian at best. They were right about a lot of moldy ivy colleges, but also very wrong to meddle in someone's future. What made it worse was they were all brilliant in their fields. Like Darwins telling you you had no future in Evolution.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="260"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/spgAukrV3V0&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/spgAukrV3V0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="260"></embed></object><br /><br />So stick to your guns if you're still aiming for a teaching position or anything else of value to yourself. Ask around. Maybe you'll get some good advice. Not from people with a professional and sometimes secret egomania. They can do it. Nobody else can. Now with the economic meltdown, you'll probably hear the same thing from everybody. Don't waste your time trying to get a faculty position or a fellowship. Better odds with Powerball.<br /><br />On the practical side you should have some passion and aptitude for your chosen field, beyond a high GPA. Here's where Oprah's Gut Feeling might make sense.<br /><br />But most of you with your first degree are wondering what to do next, not sure you've landed in the right ballpark or in the right team. A BA or BSc doesn't open many doors. It opens personal ones at least, so there's always value in education even if no one else sees it.<br /><br />Going on to a higher degree would seem best if you can. This I'd say is foolproof. You're bound to win as you've already got a minor degree in beating the system. Here too you might be able to change or refine your career focus. A complete change of direction is only for the brave. To go from Arts to Medicine via another Bachelor's Degree and wing it for another decade is OK if you're sure you're going to win the Nobel too.<br /><br />But should you? If you're a nerd, get all the credentials you can. You'll need them. You might even grow out of this phase by working hard or at least convince everybody that you're some kind of genius. It could backfire if you go for multiple PhDs. Then the truth will probably come out, that you're a professional nerd. There's a nervous breakdown hazard too. A nerd space develops.<br /><br />If you're happy-go-lucky and lucky to boot, there's not much you can't do if you've got some talent and ambition. In any field these are the people who make it. And they make it look easy. But if you want to be a rocket scientist you need a Master's at least. For an artist you can do just about anything as long as you produce. There are some rules.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TpvdhGlBH-M&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TpvdhGlBH-M&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br />If you're still not sure what you want to do, then play it safe and stay in school, but browse around and sit in on other classes you're curious about, until you hit something great. It's a U Turn that might work. If you're in a big rut it might be your school or the people you hang out with. Take a higher degree where you want to be, like trading the snowbelt for California.<br /><br />Packing in education for awhile, to get a job or travel and get back in school later, is also better left to the brave.<br /><br />Easy to get sidetracked if you can get a decent job by falling into the standard routine of making a living and going into more debt to make yourself comfortable, to reward yourself for working. Often a fatal career move, but if you're lucky you could discover something worth doing and do it. Here you'll be making it on your own. You're bound to get little encouragement and help if you're not so lucky. Your best chances are counting on the family fortune or the family spa business you can take over just in case. If not, you might wind up married with kids before you know it, and slaving away to make it work.<br /><br />If you are working you'll be the junior and that means everybody will try to steal your ideas and get the credit for your work. Watch out for mentors who say they'll keep you under their wing. Nowadays they'll use you like the bosses you hate, but you won't know it 'til it's too late. Of course there are exceptions, but if you're not as astute as some writers of fiction, you'll be embarrassed at how gullible you can be.<br /><br />Odds are if you leave school you're not going back, so think about it carefully. If it's too difficult to continue your education for financial or other reasons, then you could make something of your future if you're entrepreneurial or a budding impresario who can manage people and get them to work for themselves and you. Otherwise it's likely to be a 9-5 world.<br /><br />Then there are those who are tired of school and want a break. See the world while they can. For dilettantes or artists, travel's a good way to find out where you stand. Others might fall in love with the Grape and go into viticulture. History comes alive when you travel and you could find that magic place and period that fills you with wonder. Architecture is best lived too in some fabled old city. If all you know is your own backyard you're likely not to have been exposed to much beyond a dry museum culture. The decaying beauty of Ancient Rome is still in Rome and could inspire you to be a conservationist, a restorer of antiquities, an antiques dealer or historian, maybe a romance novelist or why not an architect? Travel is about discovery.<br /><br />The trick though about travel is if you save your money for that, you might not go if you have to work for it. Thousands in the bank. Should you go or spend it on an Alfa Romeo Spider? On an extreme makeover? If you want to breeze through Europe or check out some other fantasy for a few months it's expensive and exhausting. It's worth it in the end, but consider working abroad. In a lot of places you can teach English if you have a degree and the easy to get before you go TOEFL certificate. If you don't have these two, you'll be stuck on starvation wages tutoring and washing dishes.<br /><br />So you've got options. Take one and investigate it first. Make a move when you get that gut feeling.<br /><br />--Alan Gillis<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NuqDBZquHe9RxhrW3JJM30Y3CEq9i5dwgjYrsWSi67K_WauInY6TFNvxVNb6mk29I_pOvfaW_EQGpdVZbE-UqQ8GHg5ovit4dOHkZPDw87HmTzcO_pWwTv5cUDqRiYJ2jiePdGJaKF8I/s1600-h/3528858093_8baef0647e_b_Class09GraduationASU_edit1_CCRailLife2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NuqDBZquHe9RxhrW3JJM30Y3CEq9i5dwgjYrsWSi67K_WauInY6TFNvxVNb6mk29I_pOvfaW_EQGpdVZbE-UqQ8GHg5ovit4dOHkZPDw87HmTzcO_pWwTv5cUDqRiYJ2jiePdGJaKF8I/s400/3528858093_8baef0647e_b_Class09GraduationASU_edit1_CCRailLife2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344018354844122898" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0rIjR7gIv397Bwg_HBb10SCUOMGnTXxywz3qFoR7r1y4RE8axcP9rTweSfL7z2ie8aCzjR6q1PfO0c19-XvLZ-zfVPysvJlpJtLYrjruxtpMLlu9LpLiMm-NfYf0vYGXS_3_p5kk3j1ps/s1600-h/3529668826_7280122cfa_b_Class09GraduationASU_CC_RailLife2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; 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display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3NqvYbn-zXU3E7QeaSf-a92_F1tSKd80i-flH3EyGm6w-5BtukK4XtM6tilJ-YsaM-Mxr3gPq0pwJ5mc2aRF6FY9Mw5SF5Y6YnzS7Xb8z6bTNt-1aH3yoVTO1wkduxlI_WoUTY6iXvBC/s400/3471168319_3b51635c98_o_Class09AfterGraduation_UIC_edit1_CC_ireneperez2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344014934035977538" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6k7OIGnucKaSnjvVW0xrneNuF0OqV_etQcTLpsBzN5r_GfCgbxPZINeUNw0tRv7R9Ka9paxX_QXMATQEBHAJYEMsqClsvQL63Jj5n9vz1ato1yLCFaVGQHxbOvBNF2YAIM85SI2B_2tQx/s1600-h/3537479288_683309535f_o_Class09GraduationCongratsCCmadhvixr2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 328px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6k7OIGnucKaSnjvVW0xrneNuF0OqV_etQcTLpsBzN5r_GfCgbxPZINeUNw0tRv7R9Ka9paxX_QXMATQEBHAJYEMsqClsvQL63Jj5n9vz1ato1yLCFaVGQHxbOvBNF2YAIM85SI2B_2tQx/s400/3537479288_683309535f_o_Class09GraduationCongratsCCmadhvixr2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344014757157073138" border="0" /></a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-37463952141782076292009-06-05T08:08:00.001-07:002009-06-05T09:32:48.269-07:00M. Basketball: UNC routs in championship game<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE3v-c1SW_ngWrGGREZbBt5EUZc1wrwuRBJWhKm6VEk6mp1z0psyeRoOskUfBPVltQDPGcVjt1kTeaM3FfGD_00uwkv4tuGagKMLPkvQqdZN3zjE-3kpV-A-LNSIEZgUCw8FPKA_ux_-E/s1600-h/TheDailyTarHeel_logo_UNorthCarolina2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330919719495178850" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 41px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE3v-c1SW_ngWrGGREZbBt5EUZc1wrwuRBJWhKm6VEk6mp1z0psyeRoOskUfBPVltQDPGcVjt1kTeaM3FfGD_00uwkv4tuGagKMLPkvQqdZN3zjE-3kpV-A-LNSIEZgUCw8FPKA_ux_-E/s320/TheDailyTarHeel_logo_UNorthCarolina2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIc8OLvpAvQgoIS1KbcvB0BoJkWRQKee3NgLyPtsZ5UJK8SQ4RSOOCD8QkW9GqgKtibsc4aUBqsCjWSvVuCg_ljvsZUD8w1oy0MefSG4fH9T8O7s5rDFE3zGMmc3op8ErRK9ciXePWNY/s1600-h/3910750801_TarHeelsWinNCAA_DailyTarHeel_EmmaPatti2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330919530032874770" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 320px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIc8OLvpAvQgoIS1KbcvB0BoJkWRQKee3NgLyPtsZ5UJK8SQ4RSOOCD8QkW9GqgKtibsc4aUBqsCjWSvVuCg_ljvsZUD8w1oy0MefSG4fH9T8O7s5rDFE3zGMmc3op8ErRK9ciXePWNY/s320/3910750801_TarHeelsWinNCAA_DailyTarHeel_EmmaPatti2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Tar Heels win fifth NCAA title</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By David Ely</span><br />Published: April 26, 2009<br /><br />APRIL 6, DETROIT — It started when they decided to come back.<br /><br />Four players declining the riches of the NBA, motivated to make one more run at history. One more run at a national title.<br /><br />And everything that happened this season — the expectations, the No. 1 rankings, the blowout wins — pointed toward this one moment.<br /><br />Suddenly, that moment became reality.<br /><br />Senior Mike Copeland wildly flung the ball into the air. Playersjumped up and down amid a blizzard of confetti. Tyler Hansbrough hugged coach Roy Williams as explosions rang throughout Ford Field.<br /><br />In a truly dominant display, the North Carolina Tar Heels asserted themselves atop the college basketball world as national champions by defeating Big Ten regular season champion Michigan State, 89-72.<br /><br />The win gives UNC its fifth NCAA title and second in five seasons.<br /><br />“The first one was unbelievably sweet in 2005, and in some ways this is even sweeter,” Williams said after the game. “I’m so proud of this team.…<br /><br />“My hat’s off to … the guys in the locker room, because they took Roy Williams on one fantastic ride, and it’s something that I’ll never forget.”<br /><br />Right out of the gate, the Tar Heels (34-4) let MSU know that the Spartans wouldn’t dictate the game’s tempo as it did in past wins against Louisville and UConn. . . .<br /><br /><object width="400" height="330"><param value="true" name="allowfullscreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><param value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4039511&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=698eb3&fullscreen=1" name="movie"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4039511&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=698eb3&fullscreen=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="230"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/4039511">Franklin Street: The Celebration</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/thedailytarheel">The Daily Tar Heel</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><p><a href="http://www.dailytarheel.com/sports/m-basketball-unc-routs-in-championship-game-1.1734258">Continue reading the April 26, 2009 article from the University of North Carolina's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Daily Tar Heel</span> . . .</a></p>More game coverage and video: stories, photos, video game highlights / press conference / trophy presentation:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tarheelblue.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/040609aaa.html">"A Tar Heel Triumph: North Carolina Takes Down Michigan State, 89-72" from the official Tar Heels and University of North Carolina Athletics website</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYa3oTrLnTHesOZcYHHjuJkIgNzbftBC8gawy_-XtEn6jiK_vwCfjX7-18cb31Z6uDEJ2glQvH_kJnPtWxJkr3JAFmZklS4bKvj-Wd5yEViwp403VY_9O2uE0sV4Nt9_BX9VNNTjV2W3o/s1600-h/snews-logo_StateNews_MichiganStateU2009.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330919294463920018" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 55px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYa3oTrLnTHesOZcYHHjuJkIgNzbftBC8gawy_-XtEn6jiK_vwCfjX7-18cb31Z6uDEJ2glQvH_kJnPtWxJkr3JAFmZklS4bKvj-Wd5yEViwp403VY_9O2uE0sV4Nt9_BX9VNNTjV2W3o/s320/snews-logo_StateNews_MichiganStateU2009.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/04/subdued_atmosphere_in_east_lansing_after_msu_loss">Subdued atmosphere in E.L. after MSU loss; 21 arrested</a><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Fires, arson reports following MSU loss Monday night: In a span of about two hours, 11 fire-related incidents were reported in East Lansing, which resulted in four arrests as of 3 a.m. Tuesday. . . .</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By The State News Staff</span><br />Published: April 7, 2009<br /><br />Spartans celebrated somberly following the MSU men’s basketball team’s loss to North Carolina in the NCAA national championship game on Monday night.<br /><br />A police-estimated crowd of about 1,700 people gathered in Cedar Village around midnight, shouting and celebrating in cold, damp weather.<br /><br /><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.statenews.com/flash/jwplayer/player-viral.swf" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="image=%2Fmedia%2F00%2F00%2F03%2F34%2F33475_CedarVillageRowdyAfterNCAALoss_big.jpg&file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.statenews.com%2Fmedia%2F00%2F00%2F03%2F34%2F33475_CedarVillageRowdyAfterNCAALoss.flv&plugins=viral-1d" width="400" height="270"></embed><br /><br />By the end of the night, 21 people were arrested citywide on various charges, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said.<br /><br />The Cedar Village-area crowd shrank significantly by 1:40 a.m., and the police asked all remaining people in the street to go home. The crowd dispersed within minutes.<br /><br />Medical technology junior Ashley Allemon said the atmosphere was quieter than Saturday’s after the Final Four victory, and it’s a good thing people behaved.<br /><br />“It gives our school a bad reputation with people throwing beer bottles and stuff,” she said. “I hope it’s more peaceful because we get looked down upon.”<br /><br /><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.statenews.com/flash/jwplayer/player-viral.swf" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="image=%2Fmedia%2F00%2F00%2F03%2F34%2F33476_DowntownDisappointmentAftertheLoss_big.jpg&file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.statenews.com%2Fmedia%2F00%2F00%2F03%2F34%2F33476_DowntownDisappointmentAftertheLoss.flv&plugins=viral-1d" width="400" height="270"></embed><br /><br />The weather helped put a damper on what could have been a rowdy night, Wibert said. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/04/subdued_atmosphere_in_east_lansing_after_msu_loss">Continue reading the April 7, 2009 article from Michigan State University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The State News</span> . . .</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/04/spartans_tar_heels_to_meet_again_in_big_tenacc_challenge"><span style="font-size:180%;">Spartans, Tar Heels to meet again in Big Ten /ACC Challenge<br /></span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Joey Nowak</span><br />Published: April 22, 2009<br /><br />The MSU men’s basketball team will take the floor with North Carolina for the third time in a calendar year and for the second consecutive year in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.<br /><br />The two teams will meet in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Dec. 1 in the 11th rendition of the weeklong event that pits teams from each conference against one another. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/04/spartans_tar_heels_to_meet_again_in_big_tenacc_challenge">Continue reading the April 22, 2009 article from Michigan State University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The State News</span> . . .</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Big Ten/ACC Challenge schedule:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nov. 30 2009 </span><br />Penn State at Virginia<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dec. 1 2009</span><br />Maryland at Indiana<br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">MSU at North Carolina</span><br />Northwestern at North Carolina State<br />Virginia Tech at Iowa<br />Wake Forest at Purdue<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dec. 2 2009</span><br />Boston College at Michigan<br />Duke at Wisconsin<br />Florida State at Ohio State<br />Illinois at Clemson<br />Minnesota at Miami<br /><br />--<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 5/1/2009Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-2043643245725957572009-05-14T10:13:00.001-07:002009-05-14T14:12:12.062-07:00Bush comes to Calgary<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU85lsvJ1nvUu68jGxSdEQmAipUXtMPzbxSx3UMZcxF-Oc08ifytoWDshEJi7heGhJ54Y4IjWU7ipP43hI72SwDjn8gx78e8E_uWocGuugB7xrEn-uJLwk7ja1AAtplBEPbfS499yHvaQ/s1600-h/topbarUCalgary_edit2_TheGauntlet2009.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317932246433334882" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 65px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU85lsvJ1nvUu68jGxSdEQmAipUXtMPzbxSx3UMZcxF-Oc08ifytoWDshEJi7heGhJ54Y4IjWU7ipP43hI72SwDjn8gx78e8E_uWocGuugB7xrEn-uJLwk7ja1AAtplBEPbfS499yHvaQ/s320/topbarUCalgary_edit2_TheGauntlet2009.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW1fHBRuC22aao2Jex2-8xteCwVsK7ZEEamPBXqMRJhbYRrGY8vh5HT1rg-Yg3BvMgcaS1DnmV-JBvwDujqF2KdVFXwSR03ikPq9IjNZyMwFlxAGMr5wj2qMOiTDqKhCUbXZ_eV5djU9I/s1600-h/bush_web_BushCalgaryVisit_edit1_UCalgaryLindsayGoodwinGauntlet2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317931924131497858" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 201px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW1fHBRuC22aao2Jex2-8xteCwVsK7ZEEamPBXqMRJhbYRrGY8vh5HT1rg-Yg3BvMgcaS1DnmV-JBvwDujqF2KdVFXwSR03ikPq9IjNZyMwFlxAGMr5wj2qMOiTDqKhCUbXZ_eV5djU9I/s400/bush_web_BushCalgaryVisit_edit1_UCalgaryLindsayGoodwinGauntlet2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Mixed reactions from the crowd, shoes and toast welcome former president</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Katy Anderson</span><br />Published: March 19, 2009<br /><br />Perhaps the most powerful man in the world for the last eight years, former president of the United States George W. Bush, gave his first speech since leaving office in Calgary on Tuesday.<br /><br />The setting outside the Telus Convention Centre was intense as approximately 200 shoe-baring protestors rallied outside-- four of whom were arrested-- and at least two snipers were visible on the rooftop of a neighboring building.<br /><br />The Calgary Police Service separated the activists from the 1,500 guests who had paid $400 to hear the Texan speak. Guests included members of Calgary's economic elite-- one protestor suggested to a friend that these were the real capitalists, "all they were missing was a monocle"-- to two of Calgary's aldermen, John Mar and Ric McIvor, and former-Alberta premier Ralph Klein.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="320"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/usIhkuIVPPY&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/usIhkuIVPPY&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="320"></embed></object><br /><br />The lunch not only garnered front pages in the city, but across the continent. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann featured the event on his Countdown program, bringing Canadian Gail Davidson of Lawyers Against the War onto his program.<br /><br />Davidson led the fight in calling for Stephen Harper, who declined to comment on Bush's visit, to bar the former American president from Canada.<br /><br />Davidson told Olbermann <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usIhkuIVPPY">(alternate link to YouTube clip)</a> and his viewers that Canada has a legal obligation under the Convention Against Torture to either prosecute him or extradite him to a country that is willing and able to do so.<br /><br />"The fact of the matter is, if we're going to look at stamping out torture, the torture created and administered by the Bush administration has to be remedied and one of the principal remedies is criminal prosecutions of those people that are responsible," she said. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/27/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/13377">Continue reading the March 19, 2008 article from the University of Calgary's <span style="font-style: italic;">Gauntlet</span>.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://newshammer.blogspot.com/2009/01/shoes-for-bush-world-tour.html">Read the Bush satire in <span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span>, "Shoes For Bush World Tour" . . .</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">*****UPDATE</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/general/view.bg?articleid=1162193&srvc=rss"><span style="font-size:180%;">Lawyer: Ex-US o</span><span style="font-size:180%;">fficials must face torture charges</span></a><br /><br />Associated Press / Boston Herald<br />Published: March 30, 2009<br /><br />. . . The case against the American officials — including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith — was brought by human rights lawyers before Spain’s investigative judge Baltasar Garzon, who has sent it on to prosecutors to see if the charges merit a full investigation.<br /><br />It alleges the men gave legal cover to the torture of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by claiming that the U.S. president could ignore the Geneva Conventions . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/general/view.bg?articleid=1162193&srvc=rss">Continue r</a><a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/general/view.bg?articleid=1162193&srvc=rss">eading the March 30, 2009 AP article from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Boston Herald</span>.</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />More Related News And Video</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4961329n">Torture Prosecutions Greenlit [by Obama], April 22, 2009 <span style="font-style: italic;">CBS News</span> video</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30388011/">U.N. rep.: Bush lawyers must be prosecuted, April 25, 2009 AP article from <span style="font-style: italic;">MSNBC</span><br /></a><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/06/obama-torture-spain-bush">John Bolton replies: Spain's illegitimate torture prosecution, May 7, 2009, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Guardian UK</span></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">More St</span><span style="font-size:130%;">udent News And Comment On Bush Policies On Torture</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiegei98WU6f6bm91BZ94NnjDYowu5f_4RK68Sh8lX4n7SXrhwXAOA8Cpq6jSWAfP3WHOqSwIMBLvQtqy6qgrBza4z6aB5FvwrMXBQ-vpi37tIaYWmSg8nsNCAX9FJcSil6s7904uEi1-sC/s1600-h/Salient_logo_UWellington_edit2_2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 44px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiegei98WU6f6bm91BZ94NnjDYowu5f_4RK68Sh8lX4n7SXrhwXAOA8Cpq6jSWAfP3WHOqSwIMBLvQtqy6qgrBza4z6aB5FvwrMXBQ-vpi37tIaYWmSg8nsNCAX9FJcSil6s7904uEi1-sC/s320/Salient_logo_UWellington_edit2_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335763569652668770" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/if-i-don%E2%80%99t-see-you-you-don%E2%80%99t-exist-america-the-torturer">If I don't see you, you don't exist: America the torturous</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Andrew Mendes</span><br />Published April 27, 2009<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I came across an article this week entitled “Obama Stands Nuremberg on Its Head,” by Mike Farrell, a contributor for the progressive web magazine Truthdig. His opening paragraph:<br /></span><br /><blockquote>“President Obama’s decision to spare CIA torturers from prosecution stands the Nuremberg principles on their head. ‘Good Germans who were only following orders’ are not exempt from the bar of justice. Individuals must be held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”</blockquote><br /><br />Last week, United States President Barak Obama released four memos outlining the interrogation techniques authorised by the Bush Administration. Techniques included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions, slapping, and covering a prisoner’s body in insects, Fear Factor style.<br /><br />Just for some background information, waterboarding was among the torture methods used by the Japanese against American prisoners of war in World War II. I know people whose grandfathers were awoken in the night from nightmares of when they were prisoners of Japan.<br /><br />Although President Obama has put a stop to the practices outlined in these memos, he said that he would not be prosecuting CIA agents who did the torturing. At Nuremberg, making sure that the Holocaust trains ran on time was found to be a crime. How flimsy the rule of law seems these days. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/if-i-don%E2%80%99t-see-you-you-don%E2%80%99t-exist-america-the-torturer">Continue reading the April 27, 2009 article from Victoria University of Wellington's <span style="font-style: italic;">Salient</span>.</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/the-only-approach-i-stand-against-is-doing-nothing">"The only app</a></span><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/the-only-approach-i-stand-against-is-doing-nothing">roach I stand against is doing nothing."</a><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Andrew Mendes</span><br />Published April 30, 2009<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I received an email update this morning from my Representative, Congressman Robert Wexler from Floirda’s 19th congressional district. The subject line: Wexler Calls for Special Prosecutor on Torture</span><br /><br />I wanted to share it with you to prove that some people on the Hill are trying to bring these offenses to light and attempt to begin repairing the many criminal and heinous acts form what history will remember as one of the darkest times in America’s history. Or perhaps I just want to prove it to myself.<br /><br />I hope this catches on like a house on fire. If this initiative is blocked, it will happen at the Executive level, in which case I’ll have all faith in “change.” Still, this is a step in the right direction. The email begins below.<br /><br /><blockquote>Dear Friends,<br /><br />Yesterday, I signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Bush Administration and Justice Department’s role in authorizing torture. With the release of the so-called “Torture Memos” last week, and the instrumental role that Bush Administration Justice Department and Executive Branch officials had in orchestrating and approving these techniques, it is evident to me that we need an independent investigation into this troubling series of events that have damaged our national security and diminished our nation before the eyes of the world.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/images/pdf/holderletter.pdf">Click here to view the text of the letter I sent to Attorney General Holder. . . .</a></blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/blog/the-only-approach-i-stand-against-is-doing-nothing">Continue reading the April 30, 2009 article from <span style="font-style: italic;">Salient.</span><br /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWNKb470hpxoMDuWO_ITWllpDFvbQt602ndjnT7RYX1dtUKoEZyJBrB_BZ3xxClBrInXHMey3zUfSVB4Ff9CpSFKtn9rrqL4BJ5aqDuFxU1mod9F6nHfIT4OHS0fxDEuwnCM8bMySuMwWH/s1600-h/sebmemo_TheMinistryOfLoveSalientUWellington2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 254px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWNKb470hpxoMDuWO_ITWllpDFvbQt602ndjnT7RYX1dtUKoEZyJBrB_BZ3xxClBrInXHMey3zUfSVB4Ff9CpSFKtn9rrqL4BJ5aqDuFxU1mod9F6nHfIT4OHS0fxDEuwnCM8bMySuMwWH/s320/sebmemo_TheMinistryOfLoveSalientUWellington2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335783246087508914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/features/dispatches-from-the-ministry-of-love"><span style="font-size:180%;">Dispatches from the Ministry of Love</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">What at first appears to be a relatively innocuous memo lifted from the pages of George Orwell’s 1984 is in fact an accurate account of the treatment by US forces of two detainees</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br />By Sebastian Henderson</span><br />Published May 12, 2009<br /><br />Take a journey down into the depths of the Ministry of Truth’s Records Department and fact check history. Change the names of Julia and Winston to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and Abu Zubaydah. Replace the names Ministry of Love to Joint Task Force Guantánamo, the Ministry of Peace with the Department of Defense and Emmanual Goldstein with Osama bin Laden. When life begins imitating literature in strange and dangerously coincidental ways, we must put the plagiarists on trial. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/features/dispatches-from-the-ministry-of-love">Continue reading the May 12, 2009 article from <span style="font-style: italic;">Salient</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-35038771860177135832009-05-14T09:57:00.001-07:002009-05-14T10:07:40.693-07:00'Latex Luau' equips students for safe sex over spring break<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qdN1fDRsJjV5-uH6FppjvF5Ct4YGI1EU5D2HePPuo7IoNKvtcdbTyb56brXCak5P-aVQS_HYVYAntOWPfjduZQyANbkk_KrzYkTPL1sh-Z9tuj3Cr-fGpDNO7yYtZ9Mp5y7yt8nO7_U/s1600-h/1406158241TheDailyTargum_RutgersU2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316804590462773938" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 302px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qdN1fDRsJjV5-uH6FppjvF5Ct4YGI1EU5D2HePPuo7IoNKvtcdbTyb56brXCak5P-aVQS_HYVYAntOWPfjduZQyANbkk_KrzYkTPL1sh-Z9tuj3Cr-fGpDNO7yYtZ9Mp5y7yt8nO7_U/s320/1406158241TheDailyTargum_RutgersU2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Free condoms, sex education games and raffles for free sex toys are just a few of the aspects of the Rutgers University Programming Association’s Latex Luau Tuesday evening</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Ariel Nagi</span><br />Published: March 11, 2009<br /><br />The RUPA Latex Luau Spring Break: Sun, Sand and STDs was designed to promote safe sex and drug abuse awareness in a fun way through a Hawaiian-style luau with food, music, games and prizes, said Mayank Patel, vice president of RUPA’s Arts and Issues Committee.<br /><br />“It’s especially important before people go on spring break to know about safe-sex facts,” said Bayruns, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore.<br /><br />The event held in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus featured a raffle to win prizes such as playing cards and whistles in the shape of a penis, lubricants, various sex toys, fishnet stockings and spring break beach gear like flip-flops, a beach umbrella, towels, sunscreen and candy.<br /><br />“It’s usually always really popular,” said Castillo, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore.<br /><br />About 40 people attended the event, where even the food table had a glass sculpture of a woman’s breast and torso and bowls filled with free condoms.<br /><br />Games included “Pin the Macho on the Man” and “Pin the Boobs on the Babe,” where a person was blindfolded, spun around to get dizzy and then asked to pin the breasts and penis on photos of a man and woman with bull’s-eye targets.<br /><br />Another game highlighted the consequences of being intoxicated while having sex. Participants had to put on vision-impairment goggles and try to put a condom on a rubber penis to show how difficult it is to practice safe sex while intoxicated.<br /><br />But it was not all fun and games.<br /><br />Tables around the Multipurpose Room such as the “Guess the Disease” game table featured real-life pictures of symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes, genital warts, gonorrhea and chlamydia. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/24/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dailytargum.com/university/latex_luau_equips_students_for_safe_sex_over_spring_break-1.1604613">Continue reading this article from Rutgers University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Daily Targum</span>.<br /></a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-90647843231152581752009-05-11T10:12:00.001-07:002009-05-11T11:01:35.913-07:00Sanctioned groups speak<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMJKVwpq6DJDSlmpXgkug8Iwnm0VvFaDWadsFdd4O7L4UrxIAG83DBSHXtp1JiRKtznxpni0UPffeLA9TJPruTJrfR7LJWrxCtn0zDGmxyY-YWeCfrw_oxQgV6aa3IGh2LnEVwWlsvbQ4/s1600-h/Excal_logo_YorkU_edit1_2009.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 49px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMJKVwpq6DJDSlmpXgkug8Iwnm0VvFaDWadsFdd4O7L4UrxIAG83DBSHXtp1JiRKtznxpni0UPffeLA9TJPruTJrfR7LJWrxCtn0zDGmxyY-YWeCfrw_oxQgV6aa3IGh2LnEVwWlsvbQ4/s320/Excal_logo_YorkU_edit1_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315671117755343890" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvuTvpI505FnZ1L7jRy2qV0Ig5Tj2aS3B8JVpSUm9CxakCuM9CIh7Y4SpcWwrwJDFdgv7RoZDLUp-981livEhlvgeagY7d6KSCGSOyI9GNTE84hIgaskpAL8ZA_vrtM8hpk2asMjajgs/s1600-h/3275986848_c9d6f6e9f0_b_YorkU_GazaRallyFeb12_CCTomCochrane2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvuTvpI505FnZ1L7jRy2qV0Ig5Tj2aS3B8JVpSUm9CxakCuM9CIh7Y4SpcWwrwJDFdgv7RoZDLUp-981livEhlvgeagY7d6KSCGSOyI9GNTE84hIgaskpAL8ZA_vrtM8hpk2asMjajgs/s400/3275986848_c9d6f6e9f0_b_YorkU_GazaRallyFeb12_CCTomCochrane2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315670699353083666" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Campus groups address one another, York admin via press release<br /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Ryan Buchanan</span><br />Published: March 18, 2009<br /><br />The recent sanctions York imposed on the Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), Hillel at York and Hasbara Fellowships at York were not enough to silence the groups. Less than a week after the conclusion of the controversial Israel Apartheid Week, the opposing organizations issued press releases condemning the other of harassment, intimidation and actions contrary to the sanctions recently imposed against them. On March 13, Hillel at York and Hasbara Fellowships at York issued a press release to ask the York administration why they continued to allow SAIA to operate on campus, despite the sanctions imposed against them.<br /><br />“It is outrageous for York University to issue a news release announcing disciplinary actions while refusing to take action itself against a suspended group operating contrary to the sanctions against it,” stated Daniel Ferman, president of Hillel at York, in the March 13 press release. York University vice-president students Rob Tiffin said there is a difference between representing a group and sharing the group’s views. “I think what they [Hillel and Hasbara] might be referring to is Vari Hall, where we have a very liberal policy for people who come in to set up,” Tiffin said. “My understanding is that the people coming to set up are not members of SAIA per se, but may certainly be supportive of SAIA’s views.”. . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.excal.on.ca/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6960&Itemid=2">Continue reading the March 18, 2009 article from York University's <span style="font-style: italic;">Excalibur</span>.</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd4mv_bGgdtIiNKa8lET_CNlHYmCUlAz620Sv7XbYrAZjbKBn94_n4m7fR3HKcBGHh8PaKqeIQ3rfjY3cw7qDdkChGzvj0nv_DbEtE-N4tXGar0CHgXB6JT6ZscD-v52ekLpAMj2py4BI/s1600-h/p08_Excalibur_TerryKing_YorkU_PalestineIsraelDebate2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd4mv_bGgdtIiNKa8lET_CNlHYmCUlAz620Sv7XbYrAZjbKBn94_n4m7fR3HKcBGHh8PaKqeIQ3rfjY3cw7qDdkChGzvj0nv_DbEtE-N4tXGar0CHgXB6JT6ZscD-v52ekLpAMj2py4BI/s320/p08_Excalibur_TerryKing_YorkU_PalestineIsraelDebate2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315670430230867154" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Related Articles On Pro/Anti-Israel Student Clashes At York U From <span style="font-style: italic;">Excalibur</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6957&Itemid=2"><span style="font-size:180%;">Shoukri’s task force</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Students and admin work to improve York University</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Scott McLean</span><br />Published March 18, 2009<br /><br />In an effort to prevent intimidation and harassment on campus, York University president Mamdouh Shoukri announced that he would set up a task force to review concerns about the student environment on campus.<br />He, however, stopped short of potentially setting restrictions on the use of Vari Hall. The York president said he would be surprised if the task force resulted in tightened restrictions on the use of Vari Hall since he was proud of easing the restrictions last year when he saw peaceful demonstrations. He explained that there were only a few incidents where he “thought the dialogue was not at the level that one should expect.”<br /><br />Shoukri didn’t cite a specific event that sparked the need for a task force but spoke in general terms about the environment on campus in recent weeks. “With all of these events, I feel that it is really important that we look at what we are doing, and we look at our current policies, whether they improve the learning environment or actually are creating hurdles for our students to learn,” he said. Shoukri released the names of seven faculty members of the task force. Among them were Patrick Monahan, the dean of Osgoode Law School and newly appointed vice-president academic, and Rob Tiffin, York vice-president students. The task force will also consist of seven students chosen through an application process.<br /><br />Adonis El-Jamal, a spokesperson for the Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) – one of the groups recently fined by the university for recent events in Vari Hall – said he didn’t think the task force was independent. “We would be better served if this was an independent task force, absent from individuals such as Rob Tiffin, who just recently arbitrarily suspended and fined groups for participating in a political protest,” he said. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6957&Itemid=2">Continue reading this article . . .</a><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VMSorlrZfUY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VMSorlrZfUY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6920&Itemid=2">Apartheid Week quiet</a><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">York University began the winter term in a controversial fashion. Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) arrived on York’s Keele Campus, stirring the emotions of an often-divided student body.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Ryan Buchanan</span><br />Published: March 11, 2009<br /><br />IAW is a controversial event; its goal is to raise awareness about the alleged Israeli apartheid system.<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMSorlrZfUY"> <span style="font-size:130%;"> </span>[Alternate Video Link to <span style="font-style: italic;">Israel awareness at York University</span>, above]</a> “The overall goal of IAW is to raise awareness about the plight of the Palestinians and the state of Israeli apartheid,” said Adonis El-Jamal, SAIA media spokesperson. The protests were tamer this year compared to recent years. This is likely due to the sanctions that the university issued against SAIA and two of York’s Jewish student organizations – Hillel at York and Hasbara Fellowships at York – for disrupting classes in Vari Hall during protests last month.<br /><br />Hillel at York president Daniel Ferman disagreed with the sanctions but said he wanted to see the university impose them more equally. “I think the university needs to take a closer look at how it’s applying the Student Code of Conduct,” he said. “What we are looking for is for it to be applied fairly to every incident and not just in isolated cases.” Aaron Rosenberg, president of Hasbara Fellowships at York, disagreed with the distribution of the sanctions to an even greater degree. “It’s obvious that these sanctions are not fair because they gave different sanctions to different groups,” he said. “It’s never fair when sanctions are handed out unevenly.” El-Jamal condemned the sanctions as oppressive.<br /><br />“We condemn the use of the Student Code of Conduct and think it’s an illegitimate code used to repress student activity and political debates on campus,” said El-Jamal. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6920&Itemid=2">Continue reading this article . . .<br /></a><br /><object width="425" height="264"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AjEWeZyvSyM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AjEWeZyvSyM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="264"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6884&Itemid=2">Middle-Eastern conflict affects students at York</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Pro-Israeli students say university failed to properly defend their rights<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Alexandra Birukova</span><br />Published: March 4, 2009<br /><br />Over the past month, York University’s Keele Campus has seen a number of clashes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students, leading some groups to accuse the university of not doing enough to protect students from intimidation. The events that took place on Feb. 11, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjEWeZyvSyM">[Alternate Link to Excalibur Video, above]</a> specifically the impromptu protest outside Hillel’s office in the Student Centre, have raised concern from some students. Daniel Ferman, the president of Hillel at York, said that the heated atmosphere on campus has left some students feeling intimidated. “I think the university should take its Code of Conduct and enforce it on a regular basis. [They should] apply it equally to all parties involved and ensure that it’s applied equally and fairly,” Ferman said.<br /><br />Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) spokesperson Adrianna Boni said none of the events of the past few weeks have been ethnically or religiously directed toward the Jewish community. . . .<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /><br /><a href="http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6884&Itemid=2">Continue reading this article . . .</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Related News On Censorship Of Canadian Student Activists:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://judeopundit.blogspot.com/2009/03/jewish-canadians-criticism-of-israeli.html"><span style="font-size:180%;">"Jewish Canadians": Criticism of Israeli Apartheid Week like McCarthyism!</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Judeopundit</span><br />Published: March 20, 2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dailymuslims.com/Opinion/1733.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Daily Muslims</span> [full text with 150 signatories]</a> is undoubtedly delighted to print this:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel<br /></span><br />We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy "Never again" means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.<br /><br />We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel's flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.<br /><br />B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper, B'nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because "anti-Semitic hate fests" were being allowed on campuses.<br /><br />Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating posters, and infringing on free speech. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/21/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://judeopundit.blogspot.com/2009/03/jewish-canadians-criticism-of-israeli.html">Continue reading this article in <span style="font-style: italic;">Judeopundit</span> . . .<br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Related Middle-East News</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-israel-un,0,456819.story">UN demands Israel compensation for stikes on Gaza facilities, accuses government of lying, <span style="font-style: italic;">AP</span>, May 5, 2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/64518.html">Israeli soldiers say army rabbis framed Gaza as religious war, <span style="font-style: italic;">McClatchyDC</span>, March 20, 2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/19/palestinian-reconciliation-talks-break-up-no-de-1/">Palestinian reconciliation talks break up, no deal [Hamas/Fatah] <span style="font-style: italic;">AP</span>, March 19, 2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067553.html">ANALYSIS / Why isn't Netanyahu backing two-state solution?, <span style="font-style: italic;">Haaretz</span>, March 3, 2009</a><br /><br />More student coverage of Israel-Palestine in <a href="http://newshammeroncampus.blogspot.com/search?q=Israel"><span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer On Campus</span> . . .</a><br /><br />More coverage of Israel-Palestine in <a href="http://newshammer.blogspot.com/search?q=Israel"><span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> . . .</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-60268753466361573042009-05-01T07:31:00.001-07:002009-05-01T07:40:26.854-07:00Give me my damn grade!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDeyMrBstmp2zFyJl7kxowt5ptl5H7OexYpBpV9jcP-wZWv03x9s2T-iNouptlYaGyjnbLsbMNziTdf0O_lbM8fxbd7Ne8WJ9Zurx3_YNktFtzITmypnLvNwu0gwHzEplegdIWv-CtzRU/s1600-h/issue_3551_ThePeakSimonFraserU2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314921169347322130" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 194px; height: 300px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDeyMrBstmp2zFyJl7kxowt5ptl5H7OexYpBpV9jcP-wZWv03x9s2T-iNouptlYaGyjnbLsbMNziTdf0O_lbM8fxbd7Ne8WJ9Zurx3_YNktFtzITmypnLvNwu0gwHzEplegdIWv-CtzRU/s320/issue_3551_ThePeakSimonFraserU2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Three months ago, I eagerly anticipated my grades as I sought to boost my CGPA so that I might participate in the co-op program this fall</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Sarshar Hosseinnia</span><br />Published: March 16, 2009<br /><br />I was pleased with the outcome of three of my courses, but intrigued as to why it was taking so long to get a mark for Philosophy 241: Philosophy in Literature.<br /><br />To be fair, I think the course was a joke; the professor barely showed up, and when he did, his teaching was questionable, to say the least.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWm1Z6vJ94GgCaldK13HJ6zuixi7JiBUSAjF7TnuVOioQsEAbQtvhmDTdy30lNWxjqsVFD7cZdJh65kNByJP2EjmmZKL1IMO7MLVUIGa8DPq4SFTXcj3uTJxjE_nNnDElbk3yKs4YKNs/s1600-h/monkiesDonJohnsonProject2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314920800412570098" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 286px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWm1Z6vJ94GgCaldK13HJ6zuixi7JiBUSAjF7TnuVOioQsEAbQtvhmDTdy30lNWxjqsVFD7cZdJh65kNByJP2EjmmZKL1IMO7MLVUIGa8DPq4SFTXcj3uTJxjE_nNnDElbk3yKs4YKNs/s320/monkiesDonJohnsonProject2009.jpg" border="0" /></a>A course that was supposed to be about literary icons such as Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, et cetera, soon turned into piffle about whether or not we should kill ourselves, and the role of apes in Early-Modern society.<br /><br />Fair enough; the reason for debate about where humans originated is parallel to numerous theories regarding man’s existence. But really, the title of the course is, “in literature.”<br /><br />As if the communication breakdown didn’t cause the class enough confusion, we were also subjected to films that most students were shown in high school.<br /><br />Again, I agree that Lord of the Flies and The Lives of Others are key films in any argument of morality, but did it really need to take up 12 of our lectures? . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/19/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.the-peak.ca/article/18536">Continue reading the March 16, 2009 article from Simon Fraser University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Peak</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-88692097244764707622009-05-01T06:53:00.000-07:002009-05-01T07:14:06.641-07:00Booze, Drugs, and RPA<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_SWysAoZe5eDcB24eAypdChlAvwzFbs6tujvY-jp6Mi4Tqmdzk3Zq1HSJNIKgGB3U4FsTdL0Kq6Lpnn-qVGR1stJWYXKEbY4efiLVuskF31ZRudCdklNTv5n5nQlcEQRwgsP03AL-78/s1600-h/900_UMelbourne_HoniSoit_2009.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309398296013504066" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 169px; height: 243px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_SWysAoZe5eDcB24eAypdChlAvwzFbs6tujvY-jp6Mi4Tqmdzk3Zq1HSJNIKgGB3U4FsTdL0Kq6Lpnn-qVGR1stJWYXKEbY4efiLVuskF31ZRudCdklNTv5n5nQlcEQRwgsP03AL-78/s320/900_UMelbourne_HoniSoit_2009.png" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Bronwyn Cowell gets a check up with Dr Tim Green, director of the Emergency Department at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Bronwyn Cowell</span><br />Published monthly: February 25, 2009<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">. . . Do you [Dr Green] or workers in your department notice a spike in student admissions on Wednesday nights (the traditional college party night) or on the night of big events, like college formals?</span><br /><br />It’s funny you mention Wednesday night. Until recently I worked every Wednesday evening for many years and I couldn’t figure out why it was always me who was trying to hail a cab surrounded by people in togas or tennis outfits… I didn’t realize Wednesday was the college party night.<br /><br />But to answer your question no significant spike of attendances, although I do recall a few ankle injuries following formals when the combination of a few drinks and high stiletto heels caused a few problems… I don’t know if that counts as a spike of admissions.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">. . . How have you seen drug and alcohol related admissions change over time? For example, has</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> the RPA ED seen the ugly end of the so called ice ‘epidemic’? Or are other party drugs like cocaine and pills still more prevalent?</span><br /><br />There’s been a lot of changes. When people take too much ice they can get very aggressive, violent, even psychotic. They may hurt themselves, others and unfortunately we’ve had a run of nurses and doctors getting hit.<br /><br />The other thing is that many young people think that using so called “party drugs” is pretty safe…The trouble is that you never know what you are taking and we’ve seen some pretty sick people. The worst offender is GBH. The margin of error with that drug is so small. We get a few cases every weekend of people who stop breathing. I’d hate to know how many people don’t make it to hospital. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/04/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.src.usyd.edu.au/honisoit/pdfs/900.pdf">Continue reading this article from the Feb 25, 2009 O Week Edition of the University of Sydney's <span style="font-style: italic;">Honi Soit.</span></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.src.usyd.edu.au/honisoit/index.html">Link to the current monthly issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">Honi Soit.</span></a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-32838140724819612612009-05-01T06:19:00.001-07:002009-05-01T06:35:43.116-07:00The Economic Crisis: I'm Excited<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF8zy5ciH400aJEqyyDdZ3HE-gPLF43TiB6k7txu8LpTbBr-v-5wvkPpvPRUaqstd392o9zgp8vuTAkVWGGYY7TBAKp6hUK3cp7F-ehyMLzVSnKjtrIZZIcnWF1HFUBWZkIplG06RUWGw/s1600-h/CATFEB09_Catalyst_RMIT_AU_Feb2009.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308362680367846754" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 281px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF8zy5ciH400aJEqyyDdZ3HE-gPLF43TiB6k7txu8LpTbBr-v-5wvkPpvPRUaqstd392o9zgp8vuTAkVWGGYY7TBAKp6hUK3cp7F-ehyMLzVSnKjtrIZZIcnWF1HFUBWZkIplG06RUWGw/s320/CATFEB09_Catalyst_RMIT_AU_Feb2009.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.su.rmit.edu.au/Catalyst_stripped/ISSUE_DOWNLOADS/CATALYST_FEB_09_WEB.pdf"><br /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">The whole capitalist system that controls the world is going through a mass extinction, and just like biological mass extinctions, something totally new will emerge</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br />By Angus Miller</span><br />Published monthly: February 9, 2009<br /><br />The neo-liberal dream of a world run by the free market is as dead now as the socialist dream of a world run without any markets at all. China and India might just become real rivals to the power of the US. The power of governments everywhere will increase compared to the power of big corporations. Basic economic theory will be reassessed. So, you’re probably not as interested in that as me (an economics student), and in the meantime with this mass extinction, it’s our jobs, our opportunities and ultimately our lifestyle that could be on the line.<br /><br />First there was the subprime crisis, which then became the credit crunch and now that is just referred to as the economic crisis, which has more recently become the recession. The scary truth is that no one knows when things will get better.<br /><br />Debt has become quite a big thing over the last twenty years. Many large companies have been boosting their profits by operating with very high levels of debt. In other words they borrow lots of money, invest it and hope that what they earn is more than their interest costs. This is called leveraging. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/01/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.su.rmit.edu.au/Catalyst_stripped/ISSUE_DOWNLOADS/CATALYST_FEB_09_WEB.pdf">Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's <span style="font-style: italic;">Catalyst</span>.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.su.rmit.edu.au/Catalyst_stripped/index.html">Link to current issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">Catalyst</span> monthly magazine.<br /></a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-77747450941224600812009-05-01T05:54:00.000-07:002009-05-01T07:17:52.312-07:00Salient: 2009 Bar Review<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8QTBfQ70XyROeNF9cYwplcksgLIzyL5ivbIHNy1qfcQ3ttcyg4DKazEqbakTTSB2wbaUhEMjpEEqwUSgMnC1tpN_oQQ53ea5g81ZF5qjdVU3A1SbrI49rC1vHPWtRhdpbmn1TRf5JHin/s1600-h/Salient_logo_UWellington2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 75px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8QTBfQ70XyROeNF9cYwplcksgLIzyL5ivbIHNy1qfcQ3ttcyg4DKazEqbakTTSB2wbaUhEMjpEEqwUSgMnC1tpN_oQQ53ea5g81ZF5qjdVU3A1SbrI49rC1vHPWtRhdpbmn1TRf5JHin/s320/Salient_logo_UWellington2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330838924532275410" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFmEo-elP18oEl_WGqZ1-q9QE58tJdDD6bjHppNhWeYhAy3KxSqu9PZfrqWXKczBc00mVKfneHCOAiRpD0EVvjxeGf2UKLXDs5Ah2JbyCSUft9j8qnaZi9tVrtXbbWrS6UA6nu1DI__k/s1600-h/salient09_00-cover_VictoriaUofWellington2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307973364465758514" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 306px; height: 200px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFmEo-elP18oEl_WGqZ1-q9QE58tJdDD6bjHppNhWeYhAy3KxSqu9PZfrqWXKczBc00mVKfneHCOAiRpD0EVvjxeGf2UKLXDs5Ah2JbyCSUft9j8qnaZi9tVrtXbbWrS6UA6nu1DI__k/s320/salient09_00-cover_VictoriaUofWellington2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">You’ve had your power shower, you’ve been drinking under the nose of your RA, you’re all dolled up and ready for your first big night on the town in Wellington…the only question remains: where to go? Never fear newbie first years! Mistress Mayhem and her merry mob of mischief makers did the hard yards in ‘08 to make sure that you wouldn’t have to</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Mistress Mayhem</span><br />Published: February 23, 2009<br /><br />We’ve compiled a list of options, depending on what your goal for the night is. Read on, little kiddies and soon you too can be flashing your ID at the kind and genteel gatekeepers of some of the most fun you’ll ever have…in first year.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Where to get crunk</span><br /><br />A certain group (okay, all) of you will have one aim and one aim only (even if it looks like you’re stumbling towards three or four) and that is to get drunk. While Mistress Mayhem doesn’t condone the overconsumption of liquor, she understands that some of you will have only just severed the apron strings and are looking to cut loose a little bit more. So, in the interests of full disclosure, the best places to consume the most booze in the least amount of time for the least amount of student loan dollars are . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/28/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salient.org.nz/features/2009-bar-review">Continue reading the Feb 23, 2009 article from Victoria University of Wellington's <span style="font-style: italic;">Salient</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-76388368372104495492009-05-01T05:25:00.001-07:002009-05-01T06:42:55.106-07:00Cityboy and the City life<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_3uPVisBIHZYMrGqfGYtUEsJh4Z3DfzpH8SEA_y45Qh9ymwkXlKsojwbwcEYSC9E62kHKPt8BTJCO2yzIuwdmfAB-HAVfKF0xxChzGkJZGDDfoTGxSL0tOOaNGZXpkNgMPvT65rWUO8/s1600-h/smallerlogo_3_OxfordUniversity_edit2_Cherwell2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307567371326044514" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 60px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_3uPVisBIHZYMrGqfGYtUEsJh4Z3DfzpH8SEA_y45Qh9ymwkXlKsojwbwcEYSC9E62kHKPt8BTJCO2yzIuwdmfAB-HAVfKF0xxChzGkJZGDDfoTGxSL0tOOaNGZXpkNgMPvT65rWUO8/s320/smallerlogo_3_OxfordUniversity_edit2_Cherwell2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRFLesAmBQlwcZfZmUjhc6tYK6wH5Y1BqvP6CtF8Fq2Ey48besTKIDMKEhiZLDSG8WzJb3jYBbaxhGLB5oCI2O9ijXrvpCrhpO7KS5nNeLfmaWVtRGr2GZ9iCY4OwapHPZJX8t1kI3XAI/s1600-h/7082Cityboy_pb_resized_OxfordUniversityCherwell2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307567139836281842" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRFLesAmBQlwcZfZmUjhc6tYK6wH5Y1BqvP6CtF8Fq2Ey48besTKIDMKEhiZLDSG8WzJb3jYBbaxhGLB5oCI2O9ijXrvpCrhpO7KS5nNeLfmaWVtRGr2GZ9iCY4OwapHPZJX8t1kI3XAI/s320/7082Cityboy_pb_resized_OxfordUniversityCherwell2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Columnist Geraint Anderson, the undercover scourge of London bankers, talks to Victoria Morrison</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Victoria Morrison</span><br />Published: February 26, 2009<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Geraint Anderson, city analyst turned rogue, knows the high life. His recently published book, Cityboy: Beer And Loathing in the Square Mile, exposes the high-flying life of those working in the Square Mile, from £1,000 meals to insider trading—via drugs and a lot of drinks. . .</span><br /><br />At a time when high-level bonuses have become infamous and symbolic of all that is wrong with the City, Anderson confirmed the notion that the bonus culture is the primary cause of the credit crunch.<br /><br />‘The City and Wall Street became wild west casinos with everyone trying to make as much money as quickly as possible, thinking that the whole shebang, caboodle, whatever, was going to be falling down at any minute. The whole emphasis is to make money.’ Even since the publication of Liar’s Poker in the 1980’s, the original exposé of city life at Salomon Bros., Anderson thinks the city has developed a dangerous ‘get rich quick, anything goes’ attitude. He believes that the asymmetrical risk of the bonuses is to blame for much of the current economic situation—if you make money you keep some of it, if you lose it there’s little by way of a penalty. But the main problem is too short-term an outlook. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/27/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cherwell.org/content/8552">Continue reading the Feb 26, 2009 article from Oxford University's <span style="font-style: italic;">Cherwell</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-83527329495034675902009-03-31T11:10:00.001-07:002009-03-31T11:36:37.675-07:00How a Fringe Group at NYU Went From Being Disliked to Loathed - The Story of the TBNYU! Kimmel Occupation<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhureWMjCaO066Jxuuig9vhr-BJPhup4ipiO0QGGF-dxdZNK2cKZDeRMpwlFkR5Q6fZeiBpQAC-vB4LeMj-ci3Yna9gGYIiQZkU4VhcYgHC_fLIcsCwe2BCI33eJj6F67AqQ2tKXZHweto/s1600-h/NYU-LOCAL_logo_edit2_2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305765699769156242" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 35px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhureWMjCaO066Jxuuig9vhr-BJPhup4ipiO0QGGF-dxdZNK2cKZDeRMpwlFkR5Q6fZeiBpQAC-vB4LeMj-ci3Yna9gGYIiQZkU4VhcYgHC_fLIcsCwe2BCI33eJj6F67AqQ2tKXZHweto/s320/NYU-LOCAL_logo_edit2_2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgVlQQRiAgLr3WUpXRyTT8TveOKM9-nEj02CL0GAehQ2QZYaPVEqg6XrzaJnozFPoybUjjoohV1ntuP-gwxPuxy2Zsf_gNUoTVjvkja5fTo1xdlcLPsZwPQBf0GnoyV_39lhR6CzJ_3A/s1600-h/TakeBackNYU_KimmelOccupation_edit1_NYU-LOCAL2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305765509036113634" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 146px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgVlQQRiAgLr3WUpXRyTT8TveOKM9-nEj02CL0GAehQ2QZYaPVEqg6XrzaJnozFPoybUjjoohV1ntuP-gwxPuxy2Zsf_gNUoTVjvkja5fTo1xdlcLPsZwPQBf0GnoyV_39lhR6CzJ_3A/s400/TakeBackNYU_KimmelOccupation_edit1_NYU-LOCAL2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Surekha Ratnatunga<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Published: February 20, 2009<br /><br />Amidst the swelling crowd at Kimmel’s cafeteria Wednesday night, NYU Local’s Charlie Eisenhood began what has now become a legendary lesson in liveblogging with the prophetic words:<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Somebody just asked me if I needed a number for legal counsel if I get thrown in jail. Looks like this might be a bit more than a dance party.</span></blockquote><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Just before 10PM, TBNYU! [Take Back NYU] barricaded the doors to the cafeteria and began reading out a list of demands, which included budget disclosure, making Bobst [library] public and giving aid/scholarships to Gaza. Half an hour later, NYPD had a small presence outside Kimmel. According to Charlie’s coverage, TBNYU! members were open to negotiating with administrators from the start.<br /><br />Before protesters started taking naps around 3.30AM, the occupation seemed somewhat wholesome. Charlie got some great pictures of people dancing, painting posters and playing cards. One NYU Security guard was quoted as saying, “It’s not a barricade, we could tear that down anytime. Get something heavier.”. . .<br /><br />Charlie's complete blogs with his photos and video: <a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/18/take-back-nyu-takes-kimmel-in-the-2009-occupation/">Day One</a>, <a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/day-2-nyu-students-occupation-of-kimmel/">Day Two</a>,<a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/night-falls-on-the-nyu-protesters-will-negotiations-happen/"> Day Two Night</a>, <a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/nyu-occupation-late-night-thread/">Day Two Late Night</a>, <a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/kimmel-occupation-day-3-updates/">Day Three</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Click on sub-heads to continue reading the original articles from NYU Local. If your Feed Reader doesn't support videos, click on </span>[Video] <span style="font-style: italic;">to open them on Youtube</span>.<br /></span></span></span><br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4ZF_DJlAEiE&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4ZF_DJlAEiE&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZF_DJlAEiE">Day One, February 18, 2009 NYU Kimmel [Video] Occupation Starts</a><br /></span><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/18/take-back-nyu-takes-kimmel-in-the-2009-occupation/">Charlie Eisenhood </a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/18/take-back-nyu-takes-kimmel-in-the-2009-occupation/"><span style="font-style: italic;">NYU Local</span> blogs live from inside:</a><br /><br /><strong>9:54 PM - </strong>Doors barricaded. [3rd floor student center dining room] “This is now an occupied space!” . . .<br /><br /><strong>10:04 PM - </strong>This is for real. A Take Back NYU student leader just read the <a href="http://takebacknyu.com/2009/02/19/nyu-occupied/">list of demands</a>. . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">11:14 PM -</span> I sat down with Maria Lewis, a TBNYU member and major organizer (although she wouldn’t admit to that since TBNYU is a non-hierarchical group), a moment ago to discuss why the group decided to make such a drastic move. She told me that they’ve been trying to “work with the administration for 2 years,” and their letter writing, press conference holding, and calm discussion failed. They can’t understand why there is “no transparency with our tuition dollars.” She told me that, since being nice didn’t work, “[they] decided to take it up a notch.”<br /><br />Lewis continued, “We want to be democratic participants in this institution of learning…We decided to physically reclaim the space, to take back the space.” She also stressed that they were doing this in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza strip. . . .<br /><br /><strong>12:31 AM - </strong>Fearless prediction: The administration isn’t going to have any of this. . .<br /><br /><strong>5:13</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> Only a hardcore handful remain awake. The lights can’t be turned off so it’s pretty difficult to drift off, even at this hour. I’m wishing I could sleep, but prowling addictinggames.com instead. . . .<br /><br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j5eydMo5Xqg&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j5eydMo5Xqg&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5eydMo5Xqg">Day Two, February 19, 2009 NYU Kimmel Occupation / Balcony Liberated [Video] / Street Rallies</a></span><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/day-2-nyu-students-occupation-of-kimmel/">Charlie Eisenhood <span style="font-style: italic;">NYU Local</span> still blogging from inside:</a><br /><br /><p><strong>10:11</strong><span style="font-weight: bold;"> AM -</span> The smokers are going crazy. They haven’t been able to smoke since around 9 last night. One guy just said to me, coffee in hand, “When I get a cigarette in me, I’m gonna pass out from ecstasy.”</p> <p><strong>10:29</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> Negotiations beginning now.</p> <p><strong>10:35</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> I have been informed by the girl who dislikes me (”fucked up” comment last night) that I am not allowed to listen to the negotiations because I am here as press and not as an activist. I did catch the first part - no concessions to open the balcony for smokers/press conference. Not a good start…</p><strong>12:27</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">PM -</span> The delay of the press conference seems to be caused by a desire to wait for more students to gather out front. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeSGsX9kZioSxxhmFIBI1Q7pcV44E9OpPDM_evzOgbMnKyM205HzulqUPRB0QwsxO_sO3y-3xCh-Q1D-1yaOIAVQwtva793P7bPsRzH2Kuw3_IzYuO9hI9vN_iLPpOGWC5DsXLPMvOlhs/s1600-h/FeministNinjasNYUKimmelOccupationNYU-Local2009.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305767796489628578" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeSGsX9kZioSxxhmFIBI1Q7pcV44E9OpPDM_evzOgbMnKyM205HzulqUPRB0QwsxO_sO3y-3xCh-Q1D-1yaOIAVQwtva793P7bPsRzH2Kuw3_IzYuO9hI9vN_iLPpOGWC5DsXLPMvOlhs/s400/FeministNinjasNYUKimmelOccupationNYU-Local2009.bmp" border="0" /></a><strong>12:45</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">PM -</span> Straight up ridick. There is a girl topless outside standing by the barricade. [Feminist Ninjas from NYU, <a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/flashy-protesting/">"Show your tits for TBNYU! . . ."</a>] Lots of people. No press conference yet. . . .<br /><br /><strong>2:52</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">PM -</span> BREAKING: Between 20 and 40 guards just entered Kimmel. Fear is setting in.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4:58 PM -</span> Chant begins: “Disclose it/Get off it/Put students over profit”<br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EnB-UlVzB9E&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EnB-UlVzB9E&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5:02 PM -</span> Conference underway. [<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnB-UlVzB9E">Balcony Rally Video</a>] “We will not stand for these scare tactics!” (referring to threats of expulsion). “We demand the administration negotiate with us now!”<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5:09 PM -</span> Protesters just asked for support from crowd all night, particularly at 1 AM at which time they are supposedly illegally here. . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Day Two Night, February 19, 2009 NYU Kimmel Occupation / Street Rally</span><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/night-falls-on-the-nyu-protesters-will-negotiations-happen/">Charlie Eisenhood </a><a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/night-falls-on-the-nyu-protesters-will-negotiations-happen/">NYU Local</a><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/night-falls-on-the-nyu-protesters-will-negotiations-happen/"> still blogging from inside</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8:19 PM -</span> This is the most negative I’ve seen the group tonight. I’m overhearing talks of failure and fear. People are worried about being arrested and/or expelled. A little tense in here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8:23 PM - </span>@Kristen: As long as they need to, they say. However, people keep leaving - that could end up causing trouble. Which leads me to @Avery: my current count is 33. It’s definitely dwindled.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8:37 PM - </span>@Kate Turtle: I think you’re right. The people remaining here are brave; they are aware of the fact that this probably won’t end well. I’ve been thinking about what the endgame might look like. I don’t foresee negotiations - there hasn’t been even an inkling of a serious offer on the part of the administration to talk to the protesters. I think it could get rough. Discuss. . . .<br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MizOJq65Gx8&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MizOJq65Gx8&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8:57 PM -</span> BREAKING: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MizOJq65Gx8">More people just busted in through the barricade [Video]</a> to join the occupiers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9:05 PM -</span> Lots of people just got in. Takes a little time to post to YouTube but i’ll have it shortly. Not surprisingly, people are hyped again.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9:15 PM -</span> Well over 50 people got in. Guards are pissed, Bob is red-faced angry. Guard broke (correct to: hurt) his arm too. Yikes. . . .<br /><br /><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">11:41 PM -</span> . . . Fearless Prediction: This is all over by 2 AM. The more little snippets of conversation I hear, the more I think NYU’s just gonna bring in the NYPD at 1. Every “negotiation” put on the table by NYU seems to have a “You’re outta here by 1 AM tonight” provision.</p> <p><strong>11:46</strong><span style="font-weight: bold;"> PM -</span> Overheard: “Let’s not get scared, guys.” ==> Get scared, guys. . . .</p><strong>11:54</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">PM -</span> “Negotiations about the negotiations” have begun. The administration offered, as a “favor,” a “safe haven” program which allowed students to leave and get only NYU probation. TBNYU rejected the offer. . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Day Two Late Night, February 19, 2009, NYU Kimmel Occupation / Street Rally / Police Scuffle / Take Back NYU Retreat</span><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/nyu-occupation-late-night-thread/">Charlie Eisenhood <span style="font-style: italic;">NYU Local</span> still blogging from inside</a><br /><br /><strong>12:24</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> More confirmation of lots of cops on east side of Kimmel. Anastasia called me out in the comments as a fool — remains to be seen.<br /><br />Also, fellow NYU Local staffers aren’t being allowed into the building, although WSN staffers are. Let the heat of 1,000 suns pour down upon the scuzball who decided on that policy. . . .<br /><br /><p><strong>12:44</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> <a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/whats-going-to-happen-at-1am/">What’s going to happen at 1 AM?</a> Everyone has an opinion. Give yours.</p> <p><strong>12:47</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> I’m sitting in my chair hearing the cries of hundreds of TBNYU supporters in front of Kimmel chanting, “Take! Back! NYU!” and catching vague clips of the TBNYU meeting I’m not welcomed into. All this while guards lurk to my right and cops are an eerie presence. The room is bristling with anticipation. 1 AM approaches. . . .<br /></p><strong>1:01 AM</strong> - The calm before the storm? <p><strong>1:04 AM-</strong> We’ve been offered a chance to leave now. I can’t leave. I’ve been following this story for over 28 hours straight. I know you all are waiting to hear what happens. I got you. I’m in it for the long haul.</p><br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Znef2C1jHvs&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Znef2C1jHvs&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1:09 AM -</span> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znef2C1jHvs">Violence in the streets [Video]</a>. People are actively fighting cops.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1:17 AM - </span>Definitely follow the twitter feed but it’s now 1:16, there’s ACTUAL rioting in the street i have video of everything it’ll go up as soon as i can put it up. Negotiations seem ongoing here in the room with Bob.<br /><br />NYU students face arrest and expulsion I’m hearing.<br /><br /><p><strong>1:21 AM </strong>- Documents were just handed out to everyone. They are “safe harbor” agreements that suspend any disciplinary charges for the remainder of student’s tenure at NYU. Photo coming.</p> <p><strong>1:27</strong><span style="font-weight: bold;"> AM -</span> TBNYU is having another secret meeting. More in a second.</p><br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQsjmgwKQ1I&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQsjmgwKQ1I&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQsjmgwKQ1I">"NYU Occupation Riot and TBNYU Scurry Away" [Video]</a><br /><strong><br />2:08</strong> <span style="font-weight: bold;">AM -</span> Correction: They will be allowed to stay the night but there will be NO amnesty and NO negotiations. They have no safety net. They can be fully prosecuted by NYPD and NYU. (at least for now) <p>As for me, this must end my time as a liveblogger here at Kimmel. I absolutely need sleep. But we’ll be back tomorrow with the final story of what happens to TBNYU.</p><p style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Day Three Kimmel Occupation Ends</span></p><p><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/kimmel-occupation-day-3-updates/">Charlie Eisenhood <span style="font-style: italic;">NYU Local</span> Wrap-up</a><br /></p><span style="font-weight: bold;">12:13 PM -</span> Hey, all. Charlie here. I just spoke to Emily Stainkamp and she informed me that administrators and security guards raided the 3rd floor and rounded up the remaining protestors. They are all being suspended.<br /><br />The team of five negotiators (before this raid) went to negotiate and were apparently detained and suspended as well. It’s currently unclear if any negotiations actually took place.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/23/of-secret-meetings-and-meager-eating-my-final-thoughts-on-the-kimmel-occupation/#more-8940">Charlie Eisenhood <span style="font-style: italic;">NYU Local</span> Final Thoughts</a><br />Published: February 23, 2009<br /><br />Three days have now passed since the end of my long stay inside the barricaded Kimmel dining hall and I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts about the experience. I have some information to share that I couldn’t publish during the occupation (for various reasons) and ideas about why the response from the NYU and outside community has been resoundingly negative. . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://nyulocal.com/category/on-campus/">Other <span style="font-style: italic;">NYU Local</span> Stories on Kimmel Occupation Ends and [Index]</a></span><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/the-kimmel-occupation-of-2009-is-over/">No Arrests Made, No Demands Met</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Cody Brown</span><br />Published: February 20, 2009<br /><br />The third floor of Kimmel has been cleared and no arrests made. None of the 13 demands of TBNYU! have been met and there were never any extensive meetings with the administration about meeting them. . . .<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/24/only-student-arrested-during-occupation-speaks-out/">Only Student Arrested Speaks Out</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Surekha Ratnatunga</span><br />Published: Feb 24, 2009<br /><br />Alexander Deschamps, Steinhardt ‘09, was the only NYU student arrested during the occupation of Kimmel last week. He was charged with unlawful assembly, inciting a riot, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration after climbing a ‘No Parking’ sign outside of Kimmel late night Thursday, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/02/19/2009-02-19_cops_crowd_scuffle_outside_nyu_student_p.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/02/19/2009-02-19_cops_crowd_scuffle_outside_nyu_student_p.html');">according to NY Daily News</a>. . . .<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/20/students-to-lose-housing-under-nyus-housing-and-student-conduct-policies/">Protesters to Lose Housing</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Jessica Roy</span><br />Published: February 20, 2009<br /><br />After emerging breathlessly from her 3rd day spent holed up in Kimmel, TBNYU!’s Farah Khimji had much to say concerning her epic ordeal. Alongside New York City Councilman Barron, Khimji made claims of security guard brutality, including “3-4 big men throwing [her] to the ground.” She explained that all TBNYU students that remained until Friday (an estimated 10 students) were to be suspended and kicked out of NYU housing.<br /><br />According to both Khimji and James Devitt of the NYU Public Affairs Office, the protesters will be escorted by security to collect their belongings, but they are not allowed back into any NYU buildings, including their dorms. The administration will be offering those without a place to go “alternative housing” for a period of time, but Devitt would not go into specifics with me. Some students accepted this proposal, while others declined. However, all students involved who were suspended have lost their housing. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/23/the-7-errors-take-back-nyu-made-in-their-occupation/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">OPINION: The 7 Errors Take Back NYU Made in Their Occupation</span></a><object width="320" height="265"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Jack Manley</span><br />Published: February 23, 2009<br /><br />I would like to take this opportunity to list 7 errors the Take Back NYU protesters made that could be rectified in future protests to a much more effective end:<br /><br />1. While lord knows I agree with almost all of the demands they made save the public opening of Bobst (library) due to the security risks it presents), they made too many demands at one time. . . .<br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ssl0Y3FcGM&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ssl0Y3FcGM&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssl0Y3FcGM">Aftermath: [Video] Demonstration in solidarity with suspended students</a><br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rdk_12j2l9E&hl=en&fs=1" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rdk_12j2l9E&hl=en&fs=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdk_12j2l9E">AP News Recap [Video] of NYU Kimmel Occupation</a><br /><br /><a href="http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/23/another-rally-for-the-protest-that-wont-die/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Another Rally For the Protest That Won’t Die</span><br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Lily Q</span><br />Published Feb 23, 2009<br /><br />In case you haven’t had enough of TBNYU!/Kimmel . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/24/2009<br /></object>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-62265107649309727352009-03-30T13:42:00.000-07:002009-03-30T14:29:51.109-07:00Palestine Debate Reaches Fever Pitch<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLHddaS4irfBYkw-3uY3K70yB3nIbwHnJcA3y2boviiaTIyA6EksZZMYQh3v19zZwBhrDsv36Qs-z2PYm2dk9vwa-CYrqZbnqNnCZEnMNCV5CCHx5tf714kP_kI09gkteTrpJQ5ypmcA/s1600-h/StudentDirect_logo_edit1_UManchesterSalfordBolton2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304637696767607970" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 89px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLHddaS4irfBYkw-3uY3K70yB3nIbwHnJcA3y2boviiaTIyA6EksZZMYQh3v19zZwBhrDsv36Qs-z2PYm2dk9vwa-CYrqZbnqNnCZEnMNCV5CCHx5tf714kP_kI09gkteTrpJQ5ypmcA/s320/StudentDirect_logo_edit1_UManchesterSalfordBolton2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq90p8VA6fpbAucI8ae5VVbEcpzmDc9kX4fr82QEm_0diWfI1VhJTGUHcC8rj4AALQmPkyeKmNIM0JOxwxq8s53WJw5Dy6JkUQ_TeumMb5tEjrKqHtu_fFRvxjQVyrhz6OQIvyuqqD3Xk/s1600-h/StudentDirectUManchester_edit2GirishGupta_GazaProtest_2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304637463560781026" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 382px; height: 240px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq90p8VA6fpbAucI8ae5VVbEcpzmDc9kX4fr82QEm_0diWfI1VhJTGUHcC8rj4AALQmPkyeKmNIM0JOxwxq8s53WJw5Dy6JkUQ_TeumMb5tEjrKqHtu_fFRvxjQVyrhz6OQIvyuqqD3Xk/s400/StudentDirectUManchester_edit2GirishGupta_GazaProtest_2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Pro-Palestine euphoria and accusations of anti-Semitism echoed across campus last Wednesday after students voted to support the Gaza Crisis victims at an Emergency General Meeting last week</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Girish Gupta<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Published: February 16, 2009</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Attracting over 1,000 students, the meeting maintained quorum even after a last-minute mass walkout in protest against the “Gaza Crisis” motion. Following the successful vote, there were renewed attempts by those in favour of the motion to occupy the University’s John Owens Building, but they were thwarted by Campus Security’s quick decision to lock all gates. Some protesters did, however, climb over the fences, chanting in support of Palestine and calling for the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Alan Gilbert.<br /><br />A week of occupations, rallies and speeches around the University of Manchester had brought student enthusiasm to fever pitch, seeing them queue throughout the Union building to get into the meeting. Academy 2 was filled with 500 people, while a similar number spilling over into Biko’s Café next door<span style="font-weight: bold;">. . . .</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/palestine-debate-reaches-fever-pitch/">Continue reading the Feb 16, 2009 article from the University of Manchester's <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Direct</span>.</a><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span></span></span><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/jewish-students-targeted-on-campus/"><span style="font-size:180%;">Jewish Students Targeted On Campus</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />By Susannah Birkwood</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Published: February 16, 2009<br /></span><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Hate mail, abusive e-mails and spitting are just some of the acts of anti-Semitism experienced by Jewish students on campus since the start of the new semester.<br /><br />Tensions have been particularly wrought between pro-Palestinian students and their Jewish counterparts since the recent conflict in Gaza. . . .</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/jewish-students-targeted-on-campus/">Continue reading the Feb 16, 2009 article from the University of Manchester's <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Direct</span>.</a></span><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span><br /><br /></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDshy6CLBJCV776egU399rgj-CiTz3LqVepaG-7eyBz_56qVxs54-N3qAmXmDzeKfMKGWvyDGxRU6LXOwCUvWViM9pFFQzW4_wbqqRB9WOYWDOX9AHfAiyQSAXXmqVRweiOXdUdmV96w/s1600-h/StudentDirectMikeKyle_edit1_UManchesterEmergencyGeneralMeetingGaza2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304637192911969794" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 382px; height: 266px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDshy6CLBJCV776egU399rgj-CiTz3LqVepaG-7eyBz_56qVxs54-N3qAmXmDzeKfMKGWvyDGxRU6LXOwCUvWViM9pFFQzW4_wbqqRB9WOYWDOX9AHfAiyQSAXXmqVRweiOXdUdmV96w/s400/StudentDirectMikeKyle_edit1_UManchesterEmergencyGeneralMeetingGaza2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/the-meeting-that-never-was/"><span style="font-size:180%;">The Meeting That Never Was</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Girish Gupta</span><br />Published: February 9, 2009<br /><br />The emergency General Meeting last Wednesday missed reaching quorum by just a handful of students, causing frustrated activists to take to the streets in protest.<br /><br />Supporters of the motion claimed that the doors had been locked during the quorum count to verify the presence of at least 500 students, preventing seats from filling up. Members of the Jewish Society were accused of blocking entry to prevent the vote on the motion in support of<br />Gaza from going ahead. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/the-meeting-that-never-was/">Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from the University of Manchester's <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Direct</span>.<br /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/university-under-occupation/"><span style="font-size:180%;">University Under Occupation</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Susannah Birkwood</span><br />Published: February 9, 2009<br /><br />More than 150 students staged a sit-in protest outside the University Vice-Chancellor’s office last week to demand a stronger and more proactive position from the University on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/university-under-occupation/">Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from the University of Manchester's <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Direct</span>.<br /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/occupational-opinions/"><span style="font-size:180%;">Opinion: What’s the point of this occupation?</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aileen Quinn, 24, MA Cultural History</span><br /><br />“I’m protesting today because I’ve been outraged by the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sara Mahmoud, 21, Physics</span><br /><br />“We’re here today to show solidarity with the people of Gaza . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Matt Scholey, 20, Politics & Modern History</span><br /><br />“For every one person that has died in Israel, 100 children have died in Palestine. . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Mohamed Ghalaieny, MSc Environmental Science</span><br /><br />“We’re protesting because we’d like the University to take a stronger stand . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/occupational-opinions/">Continue reading student opinions on Gaza from the University of Manchester's <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Direct</span>.</a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDshy6CLBJCV776egU399rgj-CiTz3LqVepaG-7eyBz_56qVxs54-N3qAmXmDzeKfMKGWvyDGxRU6LXOwCUvWViM9pFFQzW4_wbqqRB9WOYWDOX9AHfAiyQSAXXmqVRweiOXdUdmV96w/s1600-h/StudentDirectMikeKyle_edit1_UManchesterEmergencyGeneralMeetingGaza2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO1MfojUjvcANuxDaVYDPN96j8f-qMBVYpiSN6GbXXJUHQjApSnW4C7aaXEoPYJrAhsnAslfo6C29gLMj5ywJLADZ8amr4f_tA4HlSKH5ns2p5LL0pu-jPTny1-Ogs4tY8d1uzDsTUMNM/s1600-h/StudentDirectMikeKyleUManchester_edit2_ActionPalestineProtest2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304636952446174690" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 382px; height: 288px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO1MfojUjvcANuxDaVYDPN96j8f-qMBVYpiSN6GbXXJUHQjApSnW4C7aaXEoPYJrAhsnAslfo6C29gLMj5ywJLADZ8amr4f_tA4HlSKH5ns2p5LL0pu-jPTny1-Ogs4tY8d1uzDsTUMNM/s400/StudentDirectMikeKyleUManchester_edit2_ActionPalestineProtest2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/palestine-protest-disrupts-exams/"><span style="font-size:180%;">Palestine Protest Disrupts Exams</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Alena Eis</span><br />Published: February 9, 2009<br /><br />A pro-Palestine demonstration culminating in the 27 hour occupation of a university building has sparked controversy because it was held during the busy exam period.<br /><br />Action Palestine protesters teamed up with Socialist Worker Party students to highlight the plight of Palestinians, while condemning Israel for their attacks on Gaza. University administration was also criticised by the protesters for its continued support of firms known to be involved in arms trade with Israel despite official policies to the contrary. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/19/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/02/palestine-protest-disrupts-exams/">Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from the University of Manchester's <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Direct</span>.</a><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-26002578871922204292009-03-27T09:45:00.001-07:002009-03-27T09:55:47.132-07:00U of C spins Shakespeare classic<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpONifxzvKAxbOhOTb8owxxCCOG0jiIKQPTcuk4romJjgJdnguNMS_uW4rxPMJwwCEC35Pp70IjVrTEoxZP9xw5ohekv7-myylIji1dmZGkJkZDPqNavLrbWIjoYW5Qny98p0XlZKTYoE/s1600-h/topbarUCalgary_edit2_TheGauntlet2009.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303879200319005330" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 65px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpONifxzvKAxbOhOTb8owxxCCOG0jiIKQPTcuk4romJjgJdnguNMS_uW4rxPMJwwCEC35Pp70IjVrTEoxZP9xw5ohekv7-myylIji1dmZGkJkZDPqNavLrbWIjoYW5Qny98p0XlZKTYoE/s320/topbarUCalgary_edit2_TheGauntlet2009.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOjRUzyY3vedW9McGnKfxF7Qm0pmilvuCJ0eu3iTCGgz_C0xz55z5EMq7dSV7EXcUSOVTzM1b8pLKKjJnDVDs1P1sQ4cOwtLJBmd9-dWmSRgFXqdGzcvo4yQHGHmdv_AjU6z_z2DiKqME/s1600-h/hamlet_web_UCalgaryTheGauntlet_edit2_AmandaHu2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303878947050284354" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOjRUzyY3vedW9McGnKfxF7Qm0pmilvuCJ0eu3iTCGgz_C0xz55z5EMq7dSV7EXcUSOVTzM1b8pLKKjJnDVDs1P1sQ4cOwtLJBmd9-dWmSRgFXqdGzcvo4yQHGHmdv_AjU6z_z2DiKqME/s320/hamlet_web_UCalgaryTheGauntlet_edit2_AmandaHu2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Love, betrayal and stress are all feelings that present day university students face during their university years</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Roman Auriti</span><br />Published: February 12, 2009<br /><br />William Shakespeare understood this when he wrote Hamlet and managed to express these emotions in a very human way that, literally, people of all ages could relate to in some way. The University of Calgary drama department will channel his words Feb. 17-28 as they embark on their own version of the play.<br /><br />U of C has never attempted one of Shakespeare's four big plays (Macbeth, King Lear, Othello and Hamlet) and director Patrick Finn says they're adding in a twist.<br /><br />"It's an all female cast," he explains. "Calgary is loaded with brilliant female actors. There are a lack of roles for all of these brilliant women. I can't imagine why anybody would stage a Shakespeare play without doing gender-blind casting. I said that anybody could try out for any role, and when you do that, what you find is that you have so many brilliant women actors that you're going to be able to stage just about anything as long as you give them the chance to do the roles."<br /><br />Finn also explains they decided to stage everything in the original time period as well as alter all of the University Theatre for their purposes. Hamlet is also getting its own unique score written right here at the U of C. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/17/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/13241">Continue reading the Feb 12, 2009 article from the University of Calgary's <span style="font-style: italic;">Gauntlet</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-80609308530015999382009-03-24T12:16:00.001-07:002009-03-24T12:40:18.784-07:00Intergroup Dialogue Program Cancelled<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8K7tRp88mqcYKqtUNK6bQHN9nPDSnvzrxDQsZhJKQ6R-odnklvp19ERwIAsw6W8G4xFbAvwth1TpSZJPSpoqA-cvBFKZ4v-JB5U1wuWFyNKm2MR8XataRStNxEs4LoA96H0LDXXB2CQ/s1600-h/logo_frontQueensU_edit1_TheJournal2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303174211733305874" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 53px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8K7tRp88mqcYKqtUNK6bQHN9nPDSnvzrxDQsZhJKQ6R-odnklvp19ERwIAsw6W8G4xFbAvwth1TpSZJPSpoqA-cvBFKZ4v-JB5U1wuWFyNKm2MR8XataRStNxEs4LoA96H0LDXXB2CQ/s320/logo_frontQueensU_edit1_TheJournal2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZuCXvVqQhheomYJRFy5-oLy-ml3gpJBqOR1-E-fmtSt46bfS9ptN572e2aVAPCOVicHZYaKzwU1NU6H-x-yRhqIO9HxFlnkGa1kvJwgUyNjqkpL16zM-kBBF5-1TpbZ6PWZARgcAjnE/s1600-h/v136i34nw1_PatrickDeane_QueensU_edit3_RobinKisbeeTheJournal2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303171634795070018" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 189px; height: 250px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZuCXvVqQhheomYJRFy5-oLy-ml3gpJBqOR1-E-fmtSt46bfS9ptN572e2aVAPCOVicHZYaKzwU1NU6H-x-yRhqIO9HxFlnkGa1kvJwgUyNjqkpL16zM-kBBF5-1TpbZ6PWZARgcAjnE/s320/v136i34nw1_PatrickDeane_QueensU_edit3_RobinKisbeeTheJournal2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Program termination one of three short-term suggestions outlined in panel assessment report</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Jane Switzer</span><br />Published: February11, 2009<br /><br />The University has moved to immediately terminate the Intergroup Dialogue Program following a recommendation from a report assessing its usefulness in residences.<br /><br />The program, created by Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Arig Girgrah, consisted of six trained student intergroup facilitators who lived in residence and whose mandate was to engage students living in residence in discussions and activities related to diversity.<br /><br />The report was written and submitted to Vice-Principal (Academic) Patrick Deane [photo] by a panel made up of Rector Leora Jackson, professor emeritus John Meisel and law alumnus, former MPP for Kingston and the Islands, former Ontario cabinet minister and former Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Keith Norton. . .<br /><br />The report acknowledges the program was the subject of widespread criticism by national media outlets such as the Globe and Mail, who wrote about the program in a Nov. 20 editorial, saying “The nanny state has hired the KGB” and calling the intergroup facilitators “spies.” Deane said it’s obvious that a program that attained so much negativity would find it difficult to achieve its goals. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2009-02-11/news/intergroup-dialogue-pr%20%20ogram-cancelled/"></a><a href="http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2009-02-11/news/intergroup-dialogue-program-cancelled/">Continue reading the Feb 11, 2009 article from Queen's University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Journal</span>.</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Media with a grain of salt</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Jeff Fraser</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Journal / Opinions</span><br />Published: February 11, 2009<br /><br />With so much sensational reporting, it’s the responsibility of the press to ensure news is accurate.<br /><br />I’m not sure which was harder to watch last semester: the Globe and Mail vilifying six average undergraduates for nothing worse than trying to teach first years about diversity, or the number of students who bought the hyperbole. It’s still a mystery to me why we’re so willing to accept an image of our Alma Mater as a democracy-hating master of puppets, but I did learn one thing from the experience: even the national media is looking for a flashy front page. Gone are the days when good reporting was the mark of a good newspaper. Sensationalism is now the only way the corporate media can keep readers’ attention away from the Internet. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2009-02-11/opinions/media-grain-salt/">Continue reading the Feb 11, 2009 article from Queen's University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Journal</span>.</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Beware the campus thought police</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br />National Post</span><br />Published: November 20, 2008<br /><br />Just who is Queen's University trying to kid? The school may call its new political-correctness cops "facilitators." It may insist they will not be eavesdropping on private conservations, "preaching" to students they overhear using "offending terms," serving as "disciplinarians" or being judgmental. But administrators are simply deluding themselves with euphemisms if they swallow their own tripe. . . .<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=974741">Continue reading the Nov 20, 2008 article from Canada's <span style="font-style: italic;">National Post</span>.</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Another Orwellian Program Shouted Down.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Margaret Soltan</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">University Diaries</span><br />Published: February 12, 2009<br /><br />Happens all the time. This one happened in Canada. As long as decent people exist, these programs will die on the vine. But eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.<br /><br />Calling it “incompatible with the atmosphere required for free speech,” Queen’s University in Kingston yesterday scrapped its controversial “dialogue facilitator” program.<br /><br />It caused a scandal last year when it was revealed the six student “facilitators” were mandated to intervene in private conversations to encourage discussion of social justice issues and discourage offensive language. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/15/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=9228">Continue reading the Feb 12, 2009 article from Margaret Soltan's blog <span style="font-style: italic;">University Diaries</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-81078437836889181002009-03-22T12:11:00.001-07:002009-03-22T12:21:46.253-07:00Profs. Consider Laptop Ban<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPwY45LrSQ1m8VQwHIlS2ldRa4o9HawWIXVS-ZKHeRWp0bKNRldTaxiQSMKAGaqAS8XxhC5nDtGDek-FThyphenhyphenHoG1BUyVQa261Fr_uitfvosmnUU-Sak3umhmfcXPLxDSgZwu4TPCLNbhE/s1600-h/TheHoyaGeorgetownU_frontpage90.36mini2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303145553833894562" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 140px; height: 260px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPwY45LrSQ1m8VQwHIlS2ldRa4o9HawWIXVS-ZKHeRWp0bKNRldTaxiQSMKAGaqAS8XxhC5nDtGDek-FThyphenhyphenHoG1BUyVQa261Fr_uitfvosmnUU-Sak3umhmfcXPLxDSgZwu4TPCLNbhE/s320/TheHoyaGeorgetownU_frontpage90.36mini2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Surfing the Web may soon disappear entirely from Georgetown classrooms, as a growing number of professors enact policies either banning or discouraging laptop use during lectures and discussion sections<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Kevin Suyo</span><br />Published: February 9, 2009<br /><br />For David Goldfrank, a professor in the department of history, the turning point came at the beginning of a World History II discussion section in 2007.<br /><br />“I started with a directed question, and the student replied, ‘Wait a minute, please. I need to turn on my computer where I have my notes,’” Goldfrank said. “[ … As a professor,] I don’t want to know what is in your computer; I want to know what is in your head.”<br /><br />From then on, Goldfrank said, he has banned laptops from all of his classes.<br /><br />With these sorts of policies, Georgetown follows an increasingly popular trend that has been documented at colleges nationwide, including Yale University and The George Washington University.<br /><br />Georgetown Law Professor David Cole conducted a test in one of his courses that resulted in 80 percent of students stating that they are more engaged without their computers in class, 70 percent of students liking his no-laptop policy, and 95 percent of students confessing that they had used their laptop for purposes not relating to the course material, he said in a recent Op-Ed in The Washington Post. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/15/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thehoya.com/node/17823">Continue reading the Feb 9, 2009 article from Georgetown University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hoya</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-59974280012904267202009-03-17T07:29:00.001-07:002009-03-17T07:45:18.677-07:00Hip-hop culture promotes activism<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6tTyADxLJbsKq2-0Fg2tp2uZ0Iqvk4uElnkzzgNlWdWuYg2LtxUUNWCVNHlRv-eISZUkoC6-Mm7wjroYB_4gPALCbSoM_VoLWoUoDchd0c9dRbwRtuFDj5g5Rrlu97nUVMYZor3bjxcA/s1600-h/Logo_edit1_TheDailyFreePressBostonUniversity2009.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301573982807041330" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 23px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6tTyADxLJbsKq2-0Fg2tp2uZ0Iqvk4uElnkzzgNlWdWuYg2LtxUUNWCVNHlRv-eISZUkoC6-Mm7wjroYB_4gPALCbSoM_VoLWoUoDchd0c9dRbwRtuFDj5g5Rrlu97nUVMYZor3bjxcA/s320/Logo_edit1_TheDailyFreePressBostonUniversity2009.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vPNsuh4rBd5lRzdjteDhVD9JtUxX80mv-x1X7bTBniRqGkKw8oVJClm_7xgopU_n9exIik7xBOYmK6jaE8iqgE8ib2MedD-lIjIIU8fSmMeSmnqWG-6YPVtvl3c5Wu2_6h9j7Gkszz0/s1600-h/2623897923BenjaminChavisJr_edit1_BostonUniversityDailyFreePressSarahGordon2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301573760265603922" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 240px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vPNsuh4rBd5lRzdjteDhVD9JtUxX80mv-x1X7bTBniRqGkKw8oVJClm_7xgopU_n9exIik7xBOYmK6jaE8iqgE8ib2MedD-lIjIIU8fSmMeSmnqWG-6YPVtvl3c5Wu2_6h9j7Gkszz0/s320/2623897923BenjaminChavisJr_edit1_BostonUniversityDailyFreePressSarahGordon2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />The first step toward breaking racial barriers was taken when Barack Obama was elected president, Benjamin Chavis, Jr. told students at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center Tuesday</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >By Lauren Metter</span><br />Published: February 11, 2009<br /><br /><br />Chavis, a former head of the NAACP and co-founder of the National Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, spoke as part of BU’s African-American studies program’s lecture series for Black History Month. . .<br /><br />In 1995, Chavis organized the Million Man March in Washington D.C. with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. The march was aimed at encouraging black men to vote. After gaining the support of famous hip-hop artists, the march received massive global publicity. Six years later, Chavis and Simmons created the first National Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, the largest national coalition of hip-hop artists, youth activists and hip-hop leaders, Chavis said.<br /><br />Chavis said he sees a “direct continuity” between what inspired young people in the civil rights movement and what moves them to action today in the hip-hop community. Hip-hop is a “global cultural phenomenon,” he said. . . . --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/11/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://dailyfreepress.com/hip-hop_culture_promotes_activism-1.1371549">Continue reading the Feb 11, 2009 article from Boston University's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Daily Free Press</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-9294016292337394782009-03-11T09:09:00.001-07:002009-03-11T15:17:54.947-07:00Sarkozy's French University Reforms Crash And Burn<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFAA8lAl6rSN9DPb8XR8TZaT4te3AYMXkeKCl5eJcNjgjdQx9gchWPs4vd65nSQg57AhmlUMW-7Li_yK-SoeIfptbzmXb5ay54bCnpFeoPaMoIq8eHUvcFVsXD1PkGud8NNY0iG1GmdhVy/s1600-h/3269918159_a290774b31_b_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_edit1_CCfarfahinne2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFAA8lAl6rSN9DPb8XR8TZaT4te3AYMXkeKCl5eJcNjgjdQx9gchWPs4vd65nSQg57AhmlUMW-7Li_yK-SoeIfptbzmXb5ay54bCnpFeoPaMoIq8eHUvcFVsXD1PkGud8NNY0iG1GmdhVy/s400/3269918159_a290774b31_b_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_edit1_CCfarfahinne2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310935033690198050" border="0" /></a>One thing the French are very proud of is their universities. Not only are standards high, apart from yearly fees of about $300, higher education is <span style="font-style: italic;">free</span>. It's also independent of commercial interests. Big business doesn't have any control over the curriculum like it has in many countries now through financing job training for business and commerce, and university research to suit itself and its goals: profits from new product development. In France you don't go to school to get a job. You get an education first.<br /><br />The contrast couldn't be more extreme between the high costs other students pay or can't pay and so don't go, and the ready access to education in France. As fundamental, is the decline in education that France has largely avoided, with students more literate before they go to university, and more mature on the need to work once they get in. Anything threatening a solid French education is taken seriously. The new threat is government reform.<br /><br />Universities are slipping everywhere with huge classes and an assembly line approach. Worse is the trend in many American and European institutions of transforming themselves into extremely expensive glorified Community Colleges, with Arts and Humanities especially relegated to the dustbin of <span style="font-style: italic;">we can't afford this</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">who needs this anyway</span>. The proposed reforms aren't tackling these problems. French reform is about efficiency, accountability of lecturers-researchers and the value of their research or lack of it. It's also about giving universities more autonomy, a new direction toward a corporate merger with industry and commerce: a new source of financing. It's the current game plan in American Universities for better or worse. The reaction in France from academics and students has been an overwhelming no way!<br /><br />General mobilizations of profs and students since February 5th against the new proposed law reforming universities, the LRU, have broken out from university campuses into the streets, paralyzing French higher education. From a public <span style="font-style: italic;">Princesse de Clèves</span> read-in in Paris to make a point on the importance of a liberal education, to mass demonstrations against the LRU's barrage of reforms. President Sarkozy and Co are under attack. Some protesters have even accused the President not only of being out of touch with the French esprit but of using poor French to knock the University Establishment, so what does he know about education?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwM1K0K3wgwYy6q3aCU8asDCg0dlEpopWkJOsdvguTM3cSeE5b6iT6YVcFBx3N6fpL-k1NiyRQqVoLCohwWWNSnWu_22C0jEjT9MQynD4lhlVQ0AcRwvkHkWe-Awa2-rMrBhwGztBdigdq/s1600-h/3269341383_bc7848c568_b_ParisProtestLRU_Feb10_edit1_CCPtit@l2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwM1K0K3wgwYy6q3aCU8asDCg0dlEpopWkJOsdvguTM3cSeE5b6iT6YVcFBx3N6fpL-k1NiyRQqVoLCohwWWNSnWu_22C0jEjT9MQynD4lhlVQ0AcRwvkHkWe-Awa2-rMrBhwGztBdigdq/s320/3269341383_bc7848c568_b_ParisProtestLRU_Feb10_edit1_CCPtit@l2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310934789962085122" border="0" /></a>So little it seems that he's alienated 70-odd universities against his reforms, not just students but the lecturers-researchers who started the massive strikes throughout France since his colloquial jab in January at the cushy non-competitive university life enjoyed by unproductive profs and researchers who publish 30% to 50% less (in some disciplines) say than their British counterparts.<br /><br />In the name of greater university autonomy and efficiency Sarkozy wants to give university presidents, presidential powers over academic staff and researchers and research itself. Staff performance will be reviewed every four years. Researchers who don't publish enough could be punished by having to teach more. Universities will be encouraged to find private financing for research and programs, pitting them against each other. Some 900 jobs cut. Already in place, one in two vacant positions due to retirement, not filled as the Sarkozy policy goes in the Civil Service.<br /><br />Sarkozy's January <span style="font-style: italic;">get with it</span> speech from the Elysée, in defense of the LRU reforms made public last October by his minister for higher education Valérie Pécresse, has sparked a May '68 reaction that has shutdown nearly all universities in France. Though many lecturers-researchers supporting the strikes are still drawing salaries while they strike, an element of farce not ignored by their non-striking colleagues, still most strikers claim they are trying to save the semester by carrying on with classes where they can, even in cafés. The strikes and marches go on in spite of French government backpedaling on the LRU. Entirely peaceful, good-humored protests that have simply closed down the universities without any use of force.<br /><br />Only at the Sorbonne in Paris have tensions skyrocketed. The anti-reform movement took the offensive, finally clashing with the forces of order. Here's the direct link, if your reader doesn't support the window below, to a dramatic <a href="http://www.contrepoint.info/?p=2119">student video on the Sorbonne occupation</a> from the Sorbonne's student newsmagazine, <span style="font-style: italic;">Contrepoint</span>.<br /><br /><div><object width="420" height="339"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x8kvb4"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x8kvb4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="420" height="339"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x8kvb4">Blocage de la sorbonne 4 mars 2009</a></b><br /><i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/contrepoint">contrepoint</a></i></div><br /><br />Up until March 4th, the Sorbonne, France's oldest and largest university, managed to remain open until students and profs tried to occupy it twice. The next day they voted for a total strike and now the Sorbonne is under siege by security forces to keep militants out, hundreds of police and private security guards called in by the university administration. With classes disrupted anyway by anti-reform students and profs sneaking in, the lecture halls were finally locked.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBPNpp9TfSXDNccGgiWkcgsMw0afBixbUqcTv5qG3i3kL2Y3juevD6RatR49xLRIZAX7aBIXwJFCtC46jQQjqaZGd2-JqU9qpmk2oDB81Tb8EmQcxT3D6zpZ9tc0jAjgb1nCPmkmDWRhj/s1600-h/3270756714_629f942909_b_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_CCfarfahinne2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBPNpp9TfSXDNccGgiWkcgsMw0afBixbUqcTv5qG3i3kL2Y3juevD6RatR49xLRIZAX7aBIXwJFCtC46jQQjqaZGd2-JqU9qpmk2oDB81Tb8EmQcxT3D6zpZ9tc0jAjgb1nCPmkmDWRhj/s320/3270756714_629f942909_b_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_CCfarfahinne2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310934382697869010" border="0" /></a><br />Tensions throughout France were high the next day March 5th with planned demonstrations in many cities against La LRU - "mon cul!" and the Loi Pécresse - "mes fesses!" 24,000 to 43,000 marched in Paris countered by 9,000 police, and this just before Pécresse was to announce further concessions the next day.<br /><br />Over three sessions of negotiations with 4 unions representing many of the 57,000 or so lecturers-researchers, Pécresse modified the LRU, meeting some objections, returning to the status quo on others, but hanging on to one important change:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitvtLFBk0VOtqKmebT18BT5ck4ikQ3rEgacTVc1w-icLPZQMrN1g395zIBlp8wT-wPFr63XBE6XGVaOG8U9zmVh-Ici0OT_zeRLyBRlTfh8um4egzl7O6kkJ7DqUihhOyaPB3xW71rBfh1/s1600-h/3293460556_819f2509fd_o_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_EDIT1_CCCollectif-f8_2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitvtLFBk0VOtqKmebT18BT5ck4ikQ3rEgacTVc1w-icLPZQMrN1g395zIBlp8wT-wPFr63XBE6XGVaOG8U9zmVh-Ici0OT_zeRLyBRlTfh8um4egzl7O6kkJ7DqUihhOyaPB3xW71rBfh1/s320/3293460556_819f2509fd_o_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_EDIT1_CCCollectif-f8_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310933603396482450" border="0" /></a>a peer review of performance every 4 years.<br />Forcing researchers to teach more if their research performance wasn't good enough, was dropped. And evaluations would not come from the office of a university president as before, but from the CNU, the national university council.<br /><br />Not good enough for the largest of the unions, Snesup-FSU, which hadn't even participated in the discussions with the government. <span style="font-style: italic;">Le Monde</span> quoted a union representative as "noting" the new "inflections" but they were "far from being sufficient".<br />If the modified LRU goes ahead now this September it means no jobs cut through 2011.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ2UjCovEhMNqztZZ59YlCbxIPtVmJvtkLyu323y4Q16EvMxzwKN7n7GYAVKZJvmsDrBLIt2F_3tqGCzJZDxs-MZBOx5dm9PBI5C6pKdjl47soXIzcY0yaUnUC2p3zkfvMxCeRT42gsKzd/s1600-h/3292644473_bff3a92ca2_o_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_edit1_CCCollectif-f8_2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ2UjCovEhMNqztZZ59YlCbxIPtVmJvtkLyu323y4Q16EvMxzwKN7n7GYAVKZJvmsDrBLIt2F_3tqGCzJZDxs-MZBOx5dm9PBI5C6pKdjl47soXIzcY0yaUnUC2p3zkfvMxCeRT42gsKzd/s320/3292644473_bff3a92ca2_o_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_edit1_CCCollectif-f8_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310932784689638994" border="0" /></a> The main bone of contention, performance evaluation goes ahead without any teeth, amounting to another academic exercise, embarrassing, time-consuming, stressful and perhaps unfair. How do you evaluate research and teaching and then measure it? And couldn't such a process become political?<br /><br />Though some academics in France and Britain think a movement to accountability on<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUku9YVAmlfECWRohktp0vqqLxdHn2Zi3py-050IIJryOBROc5AMA23l4Nc9lLQbhRaDgxIoekuVjdFs8Q58QLBL3wVXIZDc5fO3jcAPlf7J7X4AOU-nAHXc1t38b1vo7JOMmarH7HUPD/s1600-h/3292639735_f6566c27bc_o_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_edit1_CCCollectif-f8_2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUku9YVAmlfECWRohktp0vqqLxdHn2Zi3py-050IIJryOBROc5AMA23l4Nc9lLQbhRaDgxIoekuVjdFs8Q58QLBL3wVXIZDc5fO3jcAPlf7J7X4AOU-nAHXc1t38b1vo7JOMmarH7HUPD/s320/3292639735_f6566c27bc_o_ParisProtestLRU_Feb_edit1_CCCollectif-f8_2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310932469549526130" border="0" /></a>performance is a good idea. After all it's a well known fact that some researchers don't like teaching and some lecturers aren't good at teaching either. In the end it's the students who pay for these university indulgences. Though how do you fix abuses and poor performance without some penalties attached? How do you avoid alienating the majority of lecturers-researchers who do their best anyway, when you start poking into their careers, or fishing for personal problems they might have that affect their performance?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGIkE9jF06j0bmsoHDZedYRxOjeCjCKDFw-ngo7R2em0HBnLqz4J8jAbG5-rZJzXdyGLeE-aSfgUDun758qwDwoAzGhPJGNG7LYIaBBkknJUqWgAskOWNLhr4_PE94LHs1YOXWXZboWWk-/s1600-h/3331763152_1e0920f85d_o_NantesProtestLRU_Mars5_edit1_CCmanuelMC2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGIkE9jF06j0bmsoHDZedYRxOjeCjCKDFw-ngo7R2em0HBnLqz4J8jAbG5-rZJzXdyGLeE-aSfgUDun758qwDwoAzGhPJGNG7LYIaBBkknJUqWgAskOWNLhr4_PE94LHs1YOXWXZboWWk-/s320/3331763152_1e0920f85d_o_NantesProtestLRU_Mars5_edit1_CCmanuelMC2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310932048831935426" border="0" /></a><br />What it comes down to is an attack on university tenure. It's the same sort of protection awarded to judges in the courts of Europe. Once appointed they aren't accountable for their performance. It makes perfect sense to leave them to do their work, instead of having to defend it. The screening process should be enough to select the best people, and the laws of the land to keep them honest. The judges of the U.S. Supreme Court also have tenure and by and large tenure for university academics is longstanding practice and fundamental to academic freedom most everywhere.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3qYelE-1IAOnMnzQ-3n-4-L7MDpKzg3oz3CJy2kF7cjrR2Rq_Z-Jp7eDn3GK574q_EVdu5a0dgWBOWjUfELIOkMd9dREBhqUb-iaUQrbx0wduw0kM2IFUtaaOhLIKgnsO9KAIDC9DsJd/s1600-h/3333009309_dc92f11356_b_CoordinationNationaleDesUniversit%C3%A9sParis12Mar6_CCgunthert2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3qYelE-1IAOnMnzQ-3n-4-L7MDpKzg3oz3CJy2kF7cjrR2Rq_Z-Jp7eDn3GK574q_EVdu5a0dgWBOWjUfELIOkMd9dREBhqUb-iaUQrbx0wduw0kM2IFUtaaOhLIKgnsO9KAIDC9DsJd/s320/3333009309_dc92f11356_b_CoordinationNationaleDesUniversit%C3%A9sParis12Mar6_CCgunthert2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310930762599771890" border="0" /></a><br />It also means politics can't sink into university life, that profs aren't afraid of being fired for expressing opinions or being critical of anything in society. It's an essential right which shouldn't be compromised by governments and university administrations, even if there are some faults and abuses Sarkozy wants to fix.<br /><br />In any case tenure is under attack in other ways since the 1960's when many profs supported the students over university policies and government failures. This is a hot issue which only simmers in the university community. If you haven't got tenure, complaining could get you fired.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4QT9EUm6HMTnHbvfjTKwlwNLJ00q1mFQwolt4NvuwUMfW_95qjc7iCM5xdHk1abuiBm09r4ELIho2NKsdwBDx2XrkIsRCXB-Pb_c105A6LCEUKdFz_x9Nq_2lSvAYw_vG6qagSJ2aML8/s1600-h/3333009995_752b11f7e5_b_CoordinationNationaleDesUniversit%C3%A9sParis12Mars6_CCgunthert2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4QT9EUm6HMTnHbvfjTKwlwNLJ00q1mFQwolt4NvuwUMfW_95qjc7iCM5xdHk1abuiBm09r4ELIho2NKsdwBDx2XrkIsRCXB-Pb_c105A6LCEUKdFz_x9Nq_2lSvAYw_vG6qagSJ2aML8/s320/3333009995_752b11f7e5_b_CoordinationNationaleDesUniversit%C3%A9sParis12Mars6_CCgunthert2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310930494313579410" border="0" /></a><br />Tenure used to be automatic after a number of years for an assistant professor. Now it's being withheld at some universities indefinitely on no other grounds except the additional costs of tenure, added salary and benefits and no other way of cutting staff during a downturn. This puts a considerable strain on the younger and financially strapped assistant profs still paying off enormous student loans who perhaps might feel obliged to earn their tenure in other ways, if they can't get it through their academic brilliance. It creates a corporate atmosphere of having to climb the ladder of success, where money, power and position become the objects of university life and politics the means.<br /><br />The struggle between the French government and the universities goes on. There's no end in sight. A dozen academic and student unions and associations voted March 6th to continue the strikes.<br /><br />When a million French took to the streets in January to voice their discontent with business and commerce and government inaction on the economic crisis, what could Sarkozy expect when he wanted to fix something French that wasn't broken? --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 3/09/2009<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">French Sources:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2009/03/07/compromis-entre-valerie-pecresse-et-quatre-syndicats-sur-le-statut-des-enseignants-chercheurs_1164882_0.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Le Monde</span> 7/03/2009, Compromis entre Valérie Pécresse et quatre syndicats sur le statut des enseignants-chercheurs</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.la-croix.com/afp.static/pages/090305174922.t80dsdv8.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;">AFP</span> 5/03/2009, Universités: des milliers de manifestants à Paris et en province<br /></a><br /><a href="http://www.contrepoint.info/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Contrepoint</span>, coverage by students of the Sorbonne</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.netvibes.com/lerass#Le_mouvement_dans_les_medias"><span style="font-style: italic;">Portail de veille sur le mouvement de l'Université</span>, a message board on the LRU Protest<br /></a><br /><a href="http://universitesenlutte.wordpress.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">UniversitésEnLutte</span>, a major association concerned with university issues and the LRU</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.sauvonsluniversite.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Sauvonsl'Université</span>, a major association concerned with university issues and the LRU</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.elysee.fr/documents/index.php?mode=cview&cat_id=7&press_id=2259&lang=fr"><span style="font-style: italic;">Elysée</span> 01/22/2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy's speech on LRU reforms, video and transcript<br /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">English Sources: </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/">UniversityWorldNews</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090130102656262">France: Academics strike over job status, 2/01/2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090205203556680">France: Lecturers strike despite increased funding, 2/08/2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090212191747833">France: Strikes spread despite mediator, 2/15/2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090227144803608">France: End to academic strikes?, 3/01/2009</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2009030723300414">France: Lecturers vote to continue strike, 3/08/2009</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591633693082468119.post-28225379619692160532009-03-04T08:59:00.001-08:002009-03-04T09:27:07.267-08:00"Where Are My Panties?"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbYNF-lzWLRkFL7PYnfKYpzKgBFRUXr_W0lBBpSwLE2LxOHBq7zD5q3scz453kK1URWhVwvkxgkGAL-dk1HTfCSJw79jEUrxuU3z6XeujBUiiup24Mh_9GbUuekYMOksa_UyjZAUVesk/s1600-h/4214723519StudentLifefrontpageWashingtonU2009.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301211886405713314" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 320px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXbYNF-lzWLRkFL7PYnfKYpzKgBFRUXr_W0lBBpSwLE2LxOHBq7zD5q3scz453kK1URWhVwvkxgkGAL-dk1HTfCSJw79jEUrxuU3z6XeujBUiiup24Mh_9GbUuekYMOksa_UyjZAUVesk/s320/4214723519StudentLifefrontpageWashingtonU2009.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:180%;">and other hit singles</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">The Delta Gypsies. Number Two. Mix and the Dudes. The Backsliders. Moose Knuckle. Patchwork Dove. Repeat Offenders.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">By: Eric Rosenbaum</span></span><br />Published: February 6, 2009<br /><br />If you have never heard of these bands, don’t worry—just a few weeks ago, they had never heard of themselves.<br /><br />On Jan. 8, a group of 35 strangers was divided by lottery into seven completely new bands. On the night of Jan. 31, less than one month later, each group performed three original songs at the sixth annual Chippewa Chapel Band Scramble.<br /><br />The Band Scramble is a spin-off event of the Chippewa Chapel Traveling Guitar Circle, Medicine Show, Musicians’ Networking and Open Mic Night (yes, that’s the title of one event), a feature of Frederick’s Music Lounge. Originally called the Noiseday Hootenanny, the Chippewa Chapel show earned the religious nickname because Frederick’s did not have a Sunday liquor license.<br /><br />After six years of mixing it up musically, the Band Scramble presented its most highly-attended show to date this past weekend. --<span style="font-style: italic;">NewsHammer</span> 2/10/2009<br /><br /><a href="http://www.studlife.com/scene/1.1357012-1.1357012">Continue reading this article from Washington University-St Louis' <span style="font-style: italic;">Student Life</span>.</a>Alan Gillishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891733244573571562noreply@blogger.com1