... "Japan and India have managed to blend traditional social structures with modern democracy, and Iraq could do the same." But it will take time and finesse, along with respect for traditions like women wearing the veil. "A key purpose of veiling is to prevent outsiders from competing with a woman's cousins for marriage. Attack veiling, and you are attacking the core of the Middle Eastern social system."

Iraqi Family Ties Complicate American Efforts for Change

Rattle wrote:
] ] This is the current cover of the New Yorker... a great
] ] expression of the RIAA's litigious persecution of the
] ] young folk. (Note: I don't actually have the money or the
] ] time to subscribe to the New Yorker... but one can
] ] borrow. Please don't sue!)
]
] found via Lisa Rein's blog.. http://onlisareinsradar.com/

Thats fairly cool, but my favorite New Yorker Cover is the one linked here...

Will Hack For Food

Fukuyama argues that the United States, like Japan and Germany, has been a high-trust society historically but that this status has eroded in recent years. This well-researched book provides a fresh, new perspective on how economic prosperity is grounded in social life.

Trust: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order

"Battlefield sites are considered noble places in the landscape of American history. Gettysburg, Bunker Hill, and Normandy stand as monuments honoring the people who fought and died there. Massacre sites, no less a part of our history, are often hidden. Vaguely worded road signs might give some indication of the tragedy, but visitors are not greeted by museums as they are at battlefield sites, and there are no official cemeteries in which the victims lie. Because they are shameful episodes in our past, massacres are not commemorated and the innocent dead are not honored. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Sand Creek Massacre, and Tulsa Race Riot do not usually come up in history class, but over 500 people were brutally killed in these events. Although they took place long ago, they exemplify the impact--emotional, legal, and political--that the past can have on our own society today."

For better or worse, archaeology is opening the lid on American massacres

From an article in Forbes magazine, circa January 1994:

Entertainment is becoming as mobile as money. In the 1950s, Hollywood moguls established hegemony by monopolizing U.S. movie theaters. Antitrust litigators forced a divestiture. Hollywood has since reinvested in theaters, but today's antitrust police just yawn, because theaters now account for barely 20% of movie revenues. Television deals generate just under 40%. The biggest single earner is tapes for videocassette recorders, those pernicious Japanese gadgets that Hollywood worked so hard to kill a decade ago. The VCR, it turned out, was a superhighway in a box -- just what Hollywood needed to double its profits. More recently, a Beatles movie was transmitted in highly compressed form over the Internet. Within a few years it will be as easy to download compressed movies by telephone as it is to unload the family fortune.

... Nobody has any clear idea what will be the dominant distribution medium for entertainment or wealth at the end of the decade. You can be pretty sure, however, that it won't be whatever culture police choose to guard most closely.

The New Maginot Line

] Blackbox Voting.org is Bev Harris' site exposing the
] security vulnerabilities of the Diebold voting machines.
]
]
] As of 8:46 p.m. PST, the site has been pulled, with the
] following message:

only a matter of time, eh...

god this is some bullshit.

Daily Kos: Diebold feels the heat. Sends out attack lawyers

From news services to "blogs," the Internet has revolutionized the international news market -- opening it up to a broader and more active audience. Such technological innovations are rapidly changing the way people produce and consume news, making the traditional model of foreign correspondence obsolete.

This article appears in the September/October 2003 issue of Foreign Affairs. You can read a free preview online.

The New Foreign Correspondence

mandrake wrote:
] I would be interested in knowing how many people are "lifting"
] this material and how many people are quoting this material as
] sources and citing the source... because I know I've done
] this quite often, particularly when it comes to research
] papers that are available online, etc. I would assume that a
] considerable amount of people use similar tactics.

I don't think they are concerned about quotations. The internet is certainly a valuable research tool and I think schools try to reinforce that by training kids to use it. The thing is that its really easy to take something and just cut and paste it directly into your paper. People did this back in the old days with their library, but it wasn't as easy. You had to type everything in. Today its click, click, print... I've seen people do it.

Ultimately, having a lot of student papers online is a good thing, as long as you've got a way to filter the correct ones from the poor ones. Its an information resource, and as the papers are usually short it fits with the typical net attention span. Maybe we ought to turn the coin over here and consider that maybe paper writing is obsolete...

Paper writing is basically about teaching people to express themselves effectively. Maybe an email discussion board related to the topics of the course would be just as effective...

The reason that profs need papers to assess student knowledge on a subject is because they are still running everything on a very simple, old fashioned, mass lecture and assess system. Its been demonstrated that people learn much more effectively when they are personally engaged in the process. For example, instead of having all of the students write a paper on the same topic, why not have them go out and research a subject, assemble a coherent understanding, and report back to the rest of the class. Have discussion and debate. Force people to defend their positions in public. In such a case it doesn't really matter if they cut/pasted the paper. They still have to understand what it means to be able to talk about it intelligently... Furthermore, if they are forced to have an opinion, then they will be driven to understand that opinion well.

Ultimately, in this age, thinking is better then knowing. Information is easily available to you if you need it, so having it in your head for easy regurgitation isn't as important as being able to apply it in a meaningful way. Stop measuring what students know and start measuring how students think.

RE: Beyond File-Sharing, a Nation of Copiers

] Abortion Doc's Killer Expects 'Reward in Heaven' After
] Execution
]
] Abortion-rights groups worry that Hill's execution will trigger
] reprisals by those who share his steadfast belief that violence to
] stop abortion is justified. Several Florida officials connected to
] the case received threatening letters last week, accompanied by
] rifle bullets.

The only people crazier then the fundamentalists in the Middle East are the fundamentalists in the South East.

Killing for Jesus

] The denizens of Open Cultures want their connected
] collectivism to liberate the world from regulations,
] markets, and intellectual property. But what if victory
] only clears the way for corruption of their beloved
] culture? When I listen to Ceca, I have to wonder what
] dark passions and ancient evils have been held in check
] by the grim totalitarianism of the profit motive. We may
] yet find out.

This is thought provoking, although he is comparing apples and oranges...

Freedom's Dark Side