StumbleUpon | mr-damon's comments & reviews

Schools Matter: The Truth About Sputnik and Lies about American Schools

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:21:40 -0700

"I was almost 8 years old [when Sputnik was launched], and I remember the Five O'Clock Hop being interrupted on TV with a news flash, urging citizens to go outside and see the tangible symbol of the Red Menace go beeping and blinking overhead. Americans were terrified, and education changed overnight, with math, science, and engineering majors replacing the humanities and the arts for millions of American students...

"Since Sputnik, the cons and the neo-cons have repeatedly used the same tactic to drive school reform further and further backwards. Reagan exploited fear of the Japanese economic engine, now sputtering, and Bush used fear of Chinese and Indian educational and technological gains. Meanwhile, the real advantages that Americans have always had, which include an understanding of living free and creative lives capable of solving problems and introducing innovation, is put at risk by antiquarian reforms that push us further and further behind the curve in solving real world problems that cannot wait for some future generation to deal with, once the dunces and Duncans in charge have been shown to be prostituted fools they are."

practicing kavala graha (oil pulling): how-to and benefits | Roshis Raw Lifestyle

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:42:19 -0700

I just did this for the first time this morning. Used cold-pressed, unrefined coconut oil.

Facebook Moves to Improve Privacy and Transparency - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:58:36 -0700

From the page: "Over the next 12 months, Facebook will make several changes to its privacy policy and to messages on the site that inform users about their control over their personal information when they join, deactivate or delete an account or sign up to use an application."

Yeongju Journal - Rural South Koreans' Global Links Grow, Nourished by a Satellite Crop - NYTimes.com

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:25:19 -0700

Lee Si-kap, a shy farmer living in this central South Korean town, holds a record: He owns more satellite dishes than any other South Korean -- 85 of them, receiving 1,500 satellite television channels from more than 100 countries, some as far away as South Africa and Canada.

Lessons From Japan in Stemming a Crisis - NYTimes.com

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:43:40 -0800

The Obama administration is committing huge sums of money to rescuing banks, but the veterans of Japan's banking crisis have three words for the Americans: more money, faster.

The Japanese have been here before. They endured a "lost decade" of economic stagnation in the 1990s as their banks labored under crippling debt, and successive governments wasted trillions of yen on half-measures.

Only in 2003 did the government finally take the actions that helped lead to a recovery: forcing major banks to submit to merciless audits and declare bad debts; spending two trillion yen to effectively nationalize a major bank, wiping out its shareholders; and allowing weaker banks to fail.

By then, Tokyo's main Nikkei stock index had lost almost three-quarters of its value. The country's public debt had grown to exceed its gross domestic product, and deflation stalked the land. In the end, real estate prices fell for 15 consecutive years.

More alarming? Some students of the Japanese debacle say they see a similar train wreck heading for the United States.

"I thought America had studied Japan's failures," said Hirofumi Gomi, a top official at Japan's Financial Services Agency during the crisis. "Why is it making the same mistakes?"

Many American critics of the plan unveiled Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the plan lacked details. Experts on Japan found it timid -- especially given the size of the banking crisis the administration faces.

"I think they know how big it is, but they don't want to say how big it is. It's so big they can't acknowledge it," said John H. Makin, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, referring to administration officials. "The lesson from Japan in the 1990s was that they should have stepped up and nationalized the banks."

EARTHSHIP SUMMIT - Canada, June 2010

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:20:01 -0800

"The EARTHSHIP summit creates an enromous Global Village, by bringing together an alliance of 300 million schools, NGOs, businesses, governments, leaders, artists & individuals from around the world (young and old) to share ideas, form alliances and take action on saving planet earth & humanity."

http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/26jan09b/Gradient-Lok1.jpg

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:09:44 -0800

"Solar Partial Eclipse in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, with KLCC & KL Tower as background, & montage in Photoshop to put all into 1 photos, every interval of sun is 5 minutes."

http://iht.com/articles/2009/01/23/arts/design26.1-412695.php

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:36:01 -0800

Which finger do you use to press a doorbell? Your answer will reveal your age almost as accurately as wrinkly hands, the way you dance, whether and where you've been pierced, and if you think "being poked" means a) a jab in the ribs, b) saying "hi" online, or c) something unmentionable.

If you're over 30, you'll probably press a doorbell with your index finger, while anyone under 30 may well use their thumb. That's because they've spent so much time flexing their thumbs when sending text messages on cellphones and gunning down baddies on games consoles. Thanks to all of that exercise, those thumbs have become stronger, nimbler and more dexterous, which is why they're likelier to use them more than their index fingers.

White House Farmer & Results

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:28:31 -0800

There's always been a White House Chef... Now is the time for a White House Farmer... Nominations OPEN!

A Portrait of Change - Nation's Many Faces in Extended First Family - NYTimes.com

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:52:21 -0800

For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some -- like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack -- are quite poor.

"Our family is new in terms of the White House, but I don't think it's new in terms of the country," Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president's younger half-sister, said last week. "I don't think the White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this country."