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Teacher-student commitment to learning needed

This is a response to “Race to the Top education grants: a tipping point for Washington students” [Opinion, May 14].

I agree that a vigorous debate is required concerning not only the “pictures of teaching and learning,” but more fundamentally, the oftentimes overlooked background role and responsibility that students and their parents bear in the education equation.

We could place the entire onus for success upon the schools and evaluate teachers and principles ad nauseam, but unless and until students become actively involved in their learning and parents apply more expectations directly to their children in the educational process, the perceived unsatisfactory outcomes would not change.

When students come to class unprepared or armed and absorbed with the latest tech device, they are not fulfilling their part of this learning enterprise. When parents look first for teacher and school inadequacy when their children’s grades are subpar instead of examining their students’ behavior, this only reinforces students’ view that they bears no responsibility for learning.

The upshot is that the teacher bears the sole responsibility for this partnership. Every partnership suffers when not all partners are committed equally. This mutual student-teacher commitment should be part of the debate and indeed maybe even part of the highly touted evaluation process.

— James Stark, Seattle

Government needs a tweak or two

Although not surprising, it remains appalling how Congress—in its deliberations on new regulations for the financial-services industry, supposedly intended to prevent another collapse of the credit markets such as was experienced in 2008 —ignore its own major role in causing that collapse. [“Adopt the toughest reforms, Opinion, May 24.]

The vast amount of subprime mortgages that underlay the collapse were the direct result of acts of Congress. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both established by Congress, were not only authorized to purchase without recourse subprime mortgages issued by banks, but they were encouraged by Congress to do so.

The Community Reinvestment Act required banks to grant mortgages to borrowers not worthy of credit. The deductibility of residential mortgage interest for income tax purposes induced homebuyer to take on mortgages they could not afford. All of these acts by Congress resulted in the huge amount of outstanding subprime mortgages and diversion of capital that could have gone into more productive use.

Yes, those who invested in the mortgage-backed securities packaged by Fannie and Freddie were neglectful in not recognizing the poor quality of the mortgages backing the securities, but those subprime mortgages would not have existed were it not for the follies of Congress.

It is one more example of how government intervention in markets results in ineffective allocation of resources with a resultant lowering of people’s standard of living. Much more than the financial-services industry, it is government that needs to be reformed.

— Donald Marsh, Bainbridge Island

Via the company’s Twitter, Microsoft debunked the fun rumor that a seven-minute slice of Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote would be set aside for Steve Ballmer. Then, cruelly, they created two very funny mental images and debunked those, too. [Microsoft] More »










Microsoft – Steve Jobs – Steve Ballmer – Apple – Twitter

Why the United States is a safe haven

“Obama to send 1,200 troops to Mexico border” [page one, May 26] and “Taking a moral stand against a broken immigration system” [Opinion, May 26] contained thoughtful perspectives on the immigration issue.

But as usual, they mostly focused on those wanting to come to the United States from south of the border.

This conversation always seems to be about how we can secure U.S. borders, but also speed up the process of allowing more people in. The past couple of Mexico presidents centered their efforts on lobbying the United States to take more people.

If I were a Mexican citizen, I would be outraged at the apparent attempt by my government to dump its people while doing very little to address the actual problems that are driving immigration to the United States.

A huge piece of the conversation seems to be missing: Why isn’t the United States being asked for or recommending ways to fix the severely dysfunctional, corrupt infrastructures in Central America and South America? People would not be so desperate to leave and risk their lives to get to the United States if their own systems worked.

— Scott Nordell, Maple Valley

Another reason why Farm Bureau wins our 2010 Insurance Company Skunk Award

In my last blog, I discussed how difficult it is to get Farm Bureau adjusters to give permission to accept tendered underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) policy limits for their own customers who have been seriously injured in car accidents. In other words, how hard it is to just get the additional protection that these people paid for from this insurance company!

And speaking of games and broken promises, here’s another one from a recent case. It’s truly sad to see that Farm Bureau also is responsible for probably the most anti-consumer change that I’ve ever seen a Michigan auto insurance company pull on its own customers. Farm Bureau shortened the normal three-year period to bring a UIM lawsuit to  only one year.

Let me repeat this: Farm Bureau cut two years from the period its customers are allowed to bring a lawsuit following an auto accident, forcing them to bring the lawsuit within one year in order to receive UIM coverage.

Farm Bureau made this change by shortening the contractual period to file a lawsuit for its own customers who had purchased important UIM and UM coverage. This change caused countless Farm Bureau customers to lose important UM and UIM insurance protection that they had purchased in good faith from Farm Bureau.

I should note this change was so anti-consumer that the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation later issued an order prohibiting auto insurance companies, including Farm Bureau, from shortening the statute of limitations from three years to one year for UIM coverage.

Why would Farm Bureau do this to it’s own customers?

There was no legal or moral justification whatsoever for this, and no reason given for why Farm Bureau decided to do this to its customers. The only reasonable explanation was that Farm Bureau just decided to try to weasel out of paying valid UIM and UM insurance claims that it was otherwise legally obligated to pay for  – and note that these insurance coverages would only apply to its own most seriously injured customers who had already been hurt in car accidents.

Sadly, a recent Michigan Court of Appeals case released on April 29,2010 called Ulrich v. Farm Bureau Insurance even reaffirmed that Farm Bureau could still avoid paying a valid UIM insurance claim to a customer who had been seriously injured in an accident on a policy that had been shortened to one year, because her car accident came before the OFIS order prohibiting shortened statute of limitations coverages.

Farm Bureau’s shortened one-year provision to bring a lawsuit was therefore valid. The customer got nothing.

Here’s what happened: The state of Michigan was so concerned by what Farm Bureau was doing that it had issued Order No. 05-060-M, making it illegal for Farm Bureau and other Michigan insurance companies to do this. However, that didn’t help Linda Ulrich, who had already purchased her Farm Bureau insurance policy with its one-year statute of limitation when she was seriously injured in a car accident. Because her car accident occurred before the order was issued, the contractually shortened period of limitations to bring a lawsuit in her Farm Bureau policy still applied. Linda Ulrich lost her right to sue for her personal injuries from her own insurance company on a policy that she had already paid for, and had been paying for, for many years.

Way to go, Farm Bureau, for sticking it to a loyal, long-term customer and choosing to still apply a contract change that was so anti-consumer that the insurance commissioner required you to change it.

You are the winner of my Insurance Company Skunk Award.

My blog post from last year on Michigan’s 10 Worst Insurance Companies has been very popular. In the near future, I’m going to post another listing the worst insurance companies for 2009. Sadly, Farm Bureau’s conduct  is all too common in Michigan.

– Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts in serious car and truck accident injury cases and automobile insurance no-fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the largest reported jury verdict for an automobile accident case in Michigan in seven of the past 10 years, including 2009, according to published year-end verdicts and settlements reports.

Related information:

Time Limits for Filing Car Accident Claims

Michigan No-Fault Law for Out of State Car Accidents

Attorney Video: Do I Have a Car Accident Case?

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with an auto accident attorney. We can help.

Repeating a phrase that has become the campaign mantra, Blumenthal spokeswoman Maura Downes said the campaign takes nothing for granted, not even with a 25 percentage point lead over Republican Linda McMahon.

“The people of Connecticut know they can count on Dick Blumenthal to stand up for them against even the toughest opponents, and that’s what he’ll do in the U.S. Senate,” Downes said in an email. “Dick is taking nothing for granted in this race — he is focused on listening to people on the issues that matter most to them, like jobs and the economy, and working hard to earn their support.”

Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee wants you to ignore BP’s handshaking and humble taking of responsibility for the oil spill.

“BP is a liar, has been a liar for many years,” says the oil rig bloodhound. “Until the checks in the bank and it’s cleared, i wouldn’t take their word that they’ll pay for anything. They will play semantic games, say ‘we’ll pay for all damage’ or ‘all legitimate damage,’ but they always qualify so later they can say ‘we don’t consider that legitimate damage’ or ‘we don’t consider that damage.’”

There was evidence of semantic games in the hearing when BP spokesperson Darryl Willis at first took responsibility for all oil spill damages, and then refused — under repeated questions — to take confirm or deny liability for damage from chemical dispersants.

Another problem for BP will be attacks from other defendants.

Although BP and Transocean are somewhat cordial, a Halliburton spokesperson launched into BP at today’s hearing. Halliburton needs to attack the oil company, Buzbee explains, because Halliburton must indemnify [is contractually obligated to pay] any damages to Transocean. Halliburton couldn’t sue Transocean without suing itself, so they will aim all guns at BP.

“I’m looking to get the largest verdict in the history of the United States,” Buzbee said.

Buzbee anticipates this case making its way to the Supreme Court. With scores of evidence against the Deepwater companies already, the attorney thinks he can increase the 1-to-1 ratio for punitive damages established in Exxon Valdez.

Don’t Miss: Nausea-Inducing Pictures Of Oil Entering The Marsh

Disclosure: The author owns shares in BP and Transocean.

Join the conversation about this story »

Today, Facebook is releasing its first official SDK for Android, offering developers on Google’s mobile OS an easy way to tie their Android native apps to Facebook Platform. As AllFacebook noted last week, this SDK is actually more advanced than the iPhone SDK because it features Facebook’s Graph API, which was unveiled at its f8 developer conference last month.

According to the post on Facebook’s Developer blog, the SDK also uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication and the ability to publish stories to Facebook using Feed forms.

I spoke with Facebook’s Steven Soneff about the SDK at Google I/O last week, where Facebook was offering a developer preview. Soneff said that there have been ways to integrate Facebook into Android applications before now, but that these have really been hacked together from the iPhone SDK, and weren’t officially supported by Facebook.

Hopefully this is a sign that Facebook is taking Android a bit more seriously. Facebook’s iPhone SDK launched over a year ago. And the official Facebook application for Android has always felt inferior to the iPhone version — it has been improving, but it still has a ways to go.
[crunchbase url=”http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook,http://www.crunchbase.com/product/android” name=”Facebook,Android”]

Five weeks into the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of the United States, even the right-wing Fox networks are turning on BP, the foreign oil behemoth responsible for the undersea oil volcano now fouling the shores of Louisiana.  Brad Johnson has the story in this TP repost.

On Monday, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith challenged top White House adviser David Axelrod why the administration continues to trust BP, whose CEO Tony Hayward bet the disaster will have a “very very modest” impact on the Gulf of Mexico, claimed BP had “contained” the spill, and complained that Americans are too litigious:

And this is the chief executive of the company that’s in charge of cleaning up this disaster now? Who calls us litigious? Who makes comments about the comparative volume of oil and then says the environmental impact is very minimal? And this is the guy we as Americans are supposed to entrust with the largest ecological disaster in American history? Tony Hayward?

On Wednesday, Fox Business Network anchor Liz Claman interviewed John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimper Alliance, whose industry is threatened with extinction by the millions of gallons of dispersed oil contaminating the Gulf Coast. Claman noted that “we can’t trust BP”:

I think one thing we do know is that we can’t trust BP with information at this point. They were the ones, absolutely, you’re correct, who said, “Oh, don’t worry, the oil will not reach the beaches.” Oh, come on!

Watch a compilation:

This righteous anger at big oil is a remarkable turnaround for the networks that lied about the oil spills caused by Hurricane Katrina, deny the threat of oil pollution to the planet, and shilled for offshore drilling during the “Drill, Baby, Drill” summer of 2008.

The cement stage of the “Top Kill” operation has no time frame, and its engineers are standing by as the mud team has yet to give them the go, according to The Oil Drum’s tweets.

Right now, the time frame may be within the next couple of hours, but The Oil Drum cannot confirm those details.

Bloomberg Television showed off a cool touch-screen presentation explaining “Top Kill” earlier, including the transition to the all important cement stage.

Don’t Miss: Nausea-Inducing Photos Of Oil Entering The Marshes

Join the conversation about this story »

Hot wrap with sweet potato fries

After sampling the new Spicy Chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-a headquarters yesterday, the company’s vice president of brand development, Woody Faulk, escorted me and a colleague from the newspaper to a conference room, where he presented a dozen new products currently in research and development. Some are further along than others, so the chances of seeing these products — even in a test-market situation — are variable.

For instance, the company currently serves three varieties of “cool wrap” made with cold chicken strips and garnishes. But one day we may see this hot wrap filled with fresh chicken strips, lettuce, tomato and cheese. On the side: some very tasty shoestring sweet potato fries. Yet this product isn’t as far along in the testing and development as some others, so we’ll have to wait.

But here are some items that customers may see sooner than later:

• Flavored iced teas and lemonade: On the right is a snapshot of peach tea: a mixture …

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States where the U.S. men and women who have died while in military service are being honored. It is scheduled and observed annually on the last Monday of May, and this year it will fall on May 31, 2010.

On a message from LtCol Oliver North, he stated that Memorial Day is a time to remember America’s freedom that was secured by Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Guardsmen and Marines who bravely risked their lives in the service of the country. Throughout the history, he said, many of these heroes have made a sacrifice – the ultimate sacrifice. This day is the time to honor their memory.

On May 36, 1986, President Ronald Reagan said on a speech at Arlington Cemetery that Memorial Day is the day that we put aside in order to remember the fallen heroes and to remember the ’splendor’ of the country and those of the country’s children who rest in that cemetery and others.

Countless people observe this holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials of those who passed away while fighting for the country. A tradition of flying the flag of the United States is held at half-staff from dawn until noon local time.

Related posts:

1. May 26th is the Start of The 2010 Fleet Week
2. Shore up! Today is Arbor Day!
3. Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains – Survivor 2010

This is definetely something cool you should know. An experimental aircraft named the X51a Waverider is set to break the record for hypersonic flight. At an astonishing speed of more than three times at Mach 6. Its unbelievable six times faster than sound travels.

Speed of sound, thats what the x51a waverider is. It was released Wednesday morning from a B-52 Stratofortress off southern California coast. According to the Air Force, on their website, they wrote about speed of sound and that it accelerated the monster to Mach 6, and according to sources it flew autonomously for 200 seconds after it finally gave in and slowly lost acceleration. This whole test had stopped when the x51a started to loose acceleration.

The last record for a hypersonic scramjet was 12 seconds and what the Air Force had to say was this:

“We are ecstatic to have accomplished many of the X-51A test points during its first hypersonic mission,” said Charlie Brink, an X-51A program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

“We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War II jump from propeller-driven aircraft to jet engines,” Brink said.

Its amazing how technology advances and everything becomes better. But at this point i think its better if we keep our feet on the ground. What do you think of the new x 51a waverider that goes beyond the speed of sound?

Related posts:

1. F.C.C. Releases Free Internet Speed Test Tool at www.broadband.gov
2. A New Faster Router CRS-3 Announced by Cisco!
3. Air Force Launches X-37B Space Plane

Article Tags: Reply To Article, Roy Spencer

We posted the article Interview With A Global Warming Skeptic: Dr. Roy Spencer by Cameron J English from scientificblogging.com. Cameron has now posted the follow up from Dr. Roy Spencer as there was some criticism made to the interview.

We thank Cameron for sending in this additional article for us to display at this site.

Are Clouds The Main Cause Of Climate Change? by Cameron J English

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Dr. Roy Spencer from the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Spencer is a trained atmospheric scientist and actively publishes in peer-reviewed journals – he is also a global warming skeptic. Given his background and contrarian views, I asked Spencer what evidence there is to suggest that a majority of the climate science community is wrong about global warming.

Read in full with comments »   

Notice anything unusual in this picture? (Besides the obvious, of course — I didn’t do a thing with my hair today.) That’s right, the front-facing 1.3MP camera on the Sprint HTC Evo 4G records things backward, at the moment. (Our pal Andrew from Androinica broke the news in a much cooler test.)

As to if and when it’ll be fixed, we caught up with HTC, which told us the following: "We are looking into whether this is strictly a software issue, if, and how soon it can be corrected." Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later. I’m not getting any prettier up there.

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

Google has announced today that their Google Buzz service is now available on all Android handsets.  Up until now Buzz was only available to users with 2.0 or higher.  While this might not be the same as having a handy widget available on your desktop, it’s a big step forward.  Simply point your Android phone to buzz.google.com and you’re off!  View streams of buzz posts, post messages and comments, and more.

Might We Suggest…

• Gmail for Mobile Adds Buzz Integration to Inbox
  

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Normally, jobs bills don’t raise the ire of Wall Street. But these aren’t normal times.

The $150 billion Senate stimulus bill that extends unemployment insurance and multiple tax cuts will try to recoup some of that money taxing hedge fund managers — not by raising the income tax, but by applying the income tax.

Private equity and hedge fund managers tend to get paid according to what’s known as the principle of 2 and 20. They charge 2% annual fees for managing the portfolio of assets, and they collect 20% of the fund’s annual profits.

There’s nothing strange about this arrangement. It makes sense to align managers’ financial interests with their clients’. There is something strange about the way the government taxes these revenue streams. The 2% fees are considered income, so they’re taxed up to the 35% marginal rate. The 20% profit returns are considered capital gains, so they’re taxed at the long-term capital gains rate of 15%.

This amounts to quite the tax break for private equity managers. Their primary source of income is taxed at half rate as long-term capital gains, even if the managers’ own capital contributed little or nothing to the gains.*

The Senate stimulus provision would tax three-quarters of this carried interest as income, bringing in billions of dollars to pay for unemployment benefits and COBRA extensions for the poor. Wrangling over the bill has come to resemble a crucible of class warfare. We’re taxing the rich to pay the poor jobless. From a political standpoint, that’s the point.

From a policy standpoint, it’s confusing the debate by making senators sound like Robin Hood wannabes rather than sound policy architects. The carried interest loophole has long had critics from across the political spectrum, and Warren Buffet famously rails against it. It’s symptomatic of a financial industry that has cleverly learned to build its revenue streams around rules and taxes and defended the existing rules and taxes with aggressive lobbying.

Hedge fund managers aren’t evil, they’re just playing by a different set of rules. This is a loophole worth closing.
_________
*As Chuck Marr at CBPP notes, “there’s no logical reason why a leveraged buyout (LBO)
specialist at a private equity firm should be taxed differently than a
mergers and acquisitions expert at an investment bank (who pays as much
as 35 percent in taxes), since both people are doing basically the same
kind of work.”

Hedge fund – Private equity – Capital gain – Business – Carried interest

The reviews are bad enough to make you pivot for the exit in your favorite Manolos, nonetheless moviegoers will be packing midnight showings of Sex And The City 2 in their best Carrie Bradshaw outfits. On the eve of the chick flick’s eagerly-anticipated opening, mixologist Gage Cass teaches us how to make the new Sex cocktails that are already causing a stir among devoted fans of the franchise.

Anyone planning to check out the movie this Memorial Day weekend?

Instructions For Making Sex And The City 2 Cocktails:

The Glamour Gal:

Combine Skyy Infusions cherry vodka, Wild Turkey bourbon and cola in a cocktail shaker with ice and stir. Pour into a double rocks glass and garnish with maraschino cherry….

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove pens an op-ed titled: “Yes, the Gulf Spill is Obama’s Katrina.” He predictably places blame on Obama for a supposedly inadequate response to the BP oil spill. But the real significance of the op-ed is not what conservative-strategist Rove has to say about Obama; rather, it’s that Rove is implicitly acknowledging that Bush screwed up the response to Katrina. Rove is essentially trying to make the case that Obama mismanaged a disaster almost as terribly as he and Bush did.  TP explains why this op-ed is news, but not the way Rove thinks.

This is breaking news because, for years, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rove has defended his administration’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. As recently as March, Rove told ABC News:

The federal government’s responsibilities were met under Katrina which were to provide the immediate assistance, to pluck people off of the roofs.

And in his recently released memoir, Rove “staunchly defends” Bush’s handling of the disaster, and praises former FEMA administrator Michael “Heck of a job, Brownie” Brown.

It’s refreshing to see Rove finally concede his own failures, albeit in a roundabout way. After all, it was he who “was in charge” of the botched reconstruction effort. In his book, Rove touted, “I’m one of the people responsible” for the administration’s response to Katrina.

Rove’s analysis would be sharper if he noted that “Obama’s Katrina” actually highlights some very real Bush and Cheney failures. By filling the Minerals Management Service — the government agency responsible for regulating off shore oil drilling — with industry shills who took drugs and had sex with the officials they were supposed to be policing, the Bush administration dangerously eroded the regulatory regime, and missed warnings that could have helped prevent the BP disaster.

– Reposted from Think Progress.

JR:  I would add that in the case of Katrina, the Bush administration ignored its own administration’s weather forecasts for days.   In the case of the spill, the reverse is true.  BP basically misled everybody about the size of the spill — by a factor of 5 — and hence their ability to control it.  It was NOAA — which is to say the Obama administration — that realized BP was lowballing the leak, that the problem was beyond the company’s resources, and that much broader action was needed (see “Looks like BP stands for Burning Petroleum; worst spill since ExxonValdez heads for LA coast“).