Wednesday - July 22, 2009

Moon landings: That’s one small quotation for a man. . .

Christopher Howse writes about the world’s faiths, especially Christianity.
He also comments frequently and blogs on the uses and abuses of the English language.

Moon landings: That’s one small quotation for a man. . .
Following a claim that Neil Armstrong did not think up his famous phrase himself, Christopher Howse finds that no one said what you thought, and someone else said it first.

By Christopher Howse
Published: 6:12PM BST 21 Jul 2009

A retired engineer from Berkshire, Gary Peach, says that it was he who came up with the line, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong is on record as saying that he “thought about it after landing” on the Moon.

Shall we see the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations listing the remark under Mr Peach’s name in future? Even if we do, one can’t help thinking that it was the event that made the words famous, not their inherent brilliance. In any case, Mr Armstrong fluffed them.

Mr Peach says he wanted to avoid the lunarnauts going on about dust. If so, he was only partly successful. Shortly after his remark about stepping, Mr Armstrong observed: “It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal.” That has a poetic ring, as if it was by Hopkins or Eliot, and Mr Armstrong recalled it subliminally.

Sometimes, it seems as if nobody famous ever said quite what you thought they did, and even then someone else had said it first. “Let me remember some words of St Francis,” Margaret Thatcher said in Downing Street in 1979. “Where there is discord, may I bring harmony.” Many people now think she said, “Where there is hatred, let me sow love,” because that is the version of the prayer they know.

The words were put into Lady Thatcher’s mouth by Ronald Millar, her chief speechwriter. He probably thought the words had indeed first been uttered by St Francis of Assisi. In reality, they date back no earlier than 1912.

They appeared in a pious French magazine called La Clochette, published by a group founded in 1901 by Father Esther Bouquerel, who perhaps wrote them. They were fastened on St Francis after being printed on the back of a picture of him in 1920.

Famous names attract famous words as a sofa attracts cat hairs. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” said Voltaire, as any writer of letters to newspapers knows. He did not say it, though.

The words were first published in 1907 in a book by S G Tallentyre, or so the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says. But there was not even any such person as S G Tallentyre, for that was a mere pen-name used by a writer called Evelyn Beatrice Hall. No one ever writes: “In the words of Evelyn Beatrice Hall, ‘I disapprove of what you say...”

Perhaps the most electrostatic attractor of quotations is Churchill. Some of the things he really did say, though, had been said by others before. He coined the phrase Iron Curtain in a speech at Fulton, Missouri, in 1946. If Ethel Snowden had used it in 1920, no one cares. It was even used by Goebbels, for heaven’s sake, in 1945, in a thoughtful leader in the magazine Das Reich. But when we hear the words Iron Curtain, we do not, fortunately, think of Goebbels.

As a magnetic furball, Oscar Wilde does pretty well, too. Though James McNeill Whistler did answer his remark, “I wish I’d said that,” with the riposte, “You will, Oscar, you will,” the story, by an irony, appeared not in a biography of Whistler, but in one of Wilde, – by L C Ingleby, or so the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations says.

The biography came out in 1907, like the Voltaire book. Ingleby didn’t exist either, being a pen-name of Cyril Gull, a curate’s son better known as Guy Thorne. who made a habit of concealing bottles of whisky all over the countryside so that on a walk he was never more than a quarter of a mile from refreshment.

The moral is perhaps that famous people who do famous things should imitate stout Cortes when he stared at the Pacific, silent upon a peak in Darien. Except it wasn’t Darien. And it wasn’t Cortes.

TELEGRAPH

Posted by peiper     on 07/22/2009 at 06:16 AM   
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THE HIPPIES RUN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM, AND THE NANNY-STATERS ALL HAVE DEGREES

In a private e-mail to me yesterday, Drew wrote the following:

Now the hippies run the school system, and the nanny-staters all have degrees in journalism. They are ALL out to remold the world in their image, not to merely teach or report.

While the subject matter discussed was not England’s schools or its teachers, what he said with reference to things across the water has much relevance to this article which appeared today. 

Damn shame if it’s all true, because once upon a time this country took second place to nobody.  To be a Brit was to be proud, even if you were poor.  You belonged to a country that brooked no nonsense, and had a grasp of traditions and culture.  Not to say it was perfect.  But pretty damn close to a great place to be.  Brits didn’t leave their country because they were oppressed. Not at all. 
The Brits simply HATE their weather. Just ask em.  But they still loved their country, and there’s a generation lost to us now that would riot in the streets if they could see how things are today. 

So this doesn’t help matters much I wouldn’t think.

Teachers in England ‘poorly trained’

Teachers in England are among the least-qualified in the developed world, according to research.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Published: 7:00AM BST 22 Jul 2009

Qualifications needed to work in schools are lower than other nations such as France, Germany and the United States, it was claimed.

The study also said more teachers quit the classroom in England after just a few years and pay fails to keep up with international standards.

Politeia, the think-tank, insisted the system of training in England was in “crisis” and called for urgent reform.

The findings were criticised by the Government which claimed teachers were now better trained than ever.

Separate figures published on Wednesday showed trainees graduating last year were more likely to have at least a lower-second class degree than when Labour came to power.

But Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, said the Politeia report reflected growing anxiety over teaching standards.

Writing in the same study, he said teachers were now expected to be more focused on “the challenges of social diversity than the excitement of teaching an academic subject”.

“These days student teachers and aspirant headteachers are lobotomised into an unthinking acceptance of the Government’s plans,” he said. “Who would want to be a member of this non-profession?

“We remain committed to the comprehensive ideal and continue to believe that a teacher should want to teach and be able to teach children of all abilities. This is nonsense. Some teachers are gifted in the teaching of academic children; others are brilliant with, for example, the emotionally and behaviourally disturbed.”

In today’s study, Politeia compared teaching standards in England with those in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the US and New Zealand.

At the moment, students attempting to work in primary schools need at least a C grade GCSE in English and mathematics, on top of a degree, before being allowed onto postgraduate training courses.

But the report said other countries demanded “the full range of subjects” to the equivalent of A-level standard before students were given more intensive training places.

Politeia said the bar had to be raised “to attract into teaching the most academically and professionally able from each generation”.

Researchers also claimed that between 30 and 50 per cent of trainees in England quit the classroom within three years of training, the highest in the countries involved.

In a further development, the study said England had the “most controlled and centrally managed profession”.

“In no other country is a teacher’s day to day work circumscribed by government or bureaucrats”, it said.

It came as separate figures from the Government’s Training and Development Agency for Schools, which runs teacher training, found 95 per cent of primary school trainee teachers and 89 per cent of those training to work in secondaries had a 2:2 or better.

Graham Holley, chief executive, said: “The large volume and high quality of candidates with good degrees entering the teaching profession continues to grow every year, which can only be good for pupils.”

TEACHERS

Posted by peiper     on 07/22/2009 at 05:42 AM   
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   Monday - July 13, 2009

The Headline is:  Segregation in schools is fueled by ‘White Flight.’ Look familiar?

Oh, now this is a huge surprise. Aren’t you all surprised too? Ppl of like background and something in common (language too?) wanting to be among their own.
Not to mention a better environment for their offspring. 

Segregation in schools fuelled by ‘white flight’

Warwick Mansell and Polly Curtis The Guardian, Friday 10 July 2009

Schools in parts of England are becoming increasingly segregated, deserted by white parents if they find their children becoming outnumbered by pupils from ethnic minorities, a report by a think tank set up to promote community cohesion has warned.

Councils should consider allocating school places using lotteries in some inner-city areas to tackle a growing phenomenon of “white flight” in the education system, the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) said.

Its study, which focused on 13 local areas including Bolton, Sunderland, Oldham, Hounslow and Bristol, concluded: “Many of the schools and colleges in the areas we have studied are segregated to a greater or lesser extent and the evidence available to us at a local level suggested that this was generally worsening over recent years.

“This reflects in part residential segregation, but it also reflects parental choice, despite the fact that most people we spoke to in focus groups wanted their children to have a mixed education. Parental choice tended to push people to what they saw as the safe option, where children with similar backgrounds went.”

It added: “We heard strong evidence of ‘white flight’ in a number of areas.”

ICoCo was set up in 2005 to research and promote community relations. Nick Johnson, its director of policy and author of the report, said: “‘White flight’ is certainly happening in specific areas of England. In the case of one school in Blackburn, once the number of non-white pupils got above 60%, white parents started saying they did not want their kids being the odd ones out.” Segregation reduced the chance for young people to mix with their peers from different backgrounds, said the report.

Johnson added that councils should consider allocating school places by lottery, a scheme that has been trialled at some schools in Brighton. “If you did that in Blackburn or Bolton or Oldham, it would have a dramatic effect on the schools’ composition ... if you accept the argument that all forms of segregation in education are bad, you do need to do something about it,” he said.

(turns out however that not all forms are bad. Are they? For example, studies have reported that girls do better in all girl schools. You may argue with that I suppose but that’s what’s being claimed. And many interviews with younger girls seem to bear it out. On the other hand, forced integration due to social engineering works against human nature. And I doubt it makes many friends.)

The report found that less popular schools with spare places sometimes admitted large numbers of immigrant pupils in a short time. It cited the case of an unnamed school at which, at the end of 2005, 85% of pupils were white British. Over the next two terms, pupils from 15 to 20 Somali families were admitted.

“Many white parents reacted negatively, arguing that their children were being disadvantaged by large numbers of non-English speakers. By September 2006, 60 white children had been removed from the school ... and the percentage of black and minority ethnic pupils rose to 45%. But many white families stayed,” the report said.

(Right. “many families stayed.” Wanna bet those were the unfortunates that either could not afford to move, or were themselves slaves to the left and PC)

Researchers also found evidence of pupils of different ethnicities not mixing even when they were sharing classes and playgrounds.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 07/13/2009 at 07:08 AM   
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   Wednesday - June 17, 2009

Lowered Expectations

The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy.

The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that “diversity” here means nonwhite skins.

Fowler insisted recently that we needed to have Annapolis graduates who “looked like” the Fleet, where enlisted people are about 42 percent nonwhite, largely African American and Hispanic.

Go read. It will only take you 3 minutes, tops.

Ouch. For our sake, I hope they are all equally “smartened up” by the time they graduate.

The enlisted ranks of the Navy are 42% minority? When both major minority groups together don’t quite make 28% of the overall population? What gives? Oh, I get it: the Navy is just one more minority government jobs program.

Just one more? You betcha. One of thousands. Go ahead, look into it. Find out - if you can - just how large a percentage they comprise at the state and federal level, even if you’re only talking “actual” unelected government employees, and leaving out teachers, post office workers, FBI agents, etc. (because the percents increase if you include those categories) Then compare that to actual population numbers, and the conclusion will be obvious: a seriously large percentage of the working adults of the 2 or 3 “top” minorities are career government employees, at a rate 4 or 5 times higher than any “majority” citizens.

No. Hell no. If we’re going to be forced to play “diversity”, then the entire military, not just the Navy, or even just Annapolis, has to be sliced and diced so that it’s membership reflects actual citizen percentages. And every single government jobs group should be exactly the same way. Every. Single. One. The firings and forced retirements will begin at 9am tomorrow.

I don’t want lowered standards for the military officer’s colleges. Hella no. I want them raised. I want future generations to complain “I couldn’t get into West Point, so I had to go to Yale. Bummer.”

h/t to Moonbattery

Posted by Drew458     on 06/17/2009 at 10:20 AM   
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   Saturday - June 13, 2009

Phew, Princeton University Narrowly Escapes Disaster

Four juveniles are in custody after one was spotted with what appeared to be a gun — but turned out to be a toy — on the Princeton University campus, police said.

Princeton Borough authorities are questioning the children after the confusion that caused a lockdown at the Ivy League school was cleared up.

“The suspected handgun was determined to be a plastic handgun that was dark in color,” the university said in a press release about the incident.

The New Jersey school’s Web site and alert system advised people around 11 a.m. EDT to stay inside following a report of a male with what appeared to be a handgun near Dod Hall dormitory.

An all-clear was issued around 11:25 a.m. EDT, and Princeton’s Public Safety Department said there was no gunman despite the earlier reports.

Police continue to investigate.

It was not clear how many students remained on campus because graduation took place on Tuesday.

It is always best to PANIC FIRST and then stop to think and use a half grain of common sense. Geex. Get a grip already.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/13/2009 at 09:33 AM   
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   Friday - June 12, 2009

Student left permanently disabled in drunken fall sues school for £300,000.  (naturally. what e

Yeah I’m a mean spirited cold hearted SOB because really, I do not feel sorry for her.

Yes I was once 16. Yes I got pie eyed once or 2wice, but nothing like this.  Wasn’t that I was smarter or anything, just that once I recognized I was having trouble remembering my own name I thought, whoops. Enough!  Another time I embarrassed the family at a gathering. Old enough to have known better but never had Champaign and, well ... you can imagine.  So ok.  I’m not pure as the driven snow.  That’ll surprise everyone.

Thing of it is, 16 may be very yootfull but. You are no longer a baby and frankly I would think girls, of all ppl, would be or should be wary given the hormones of young boys in that situation.  But girls here btw have caught up to the guys according to the papers, and are raising glass for glass with the guys.  And getting just as stoned in public at all age levels.

Blaming the school which, if you look at the photo at the link, is a very old building.  Perhaps nobody thought a different window could be fitted. No matter.
She got blind drunk and fell.  BUT ... it’s the fault of the school.

I will say that if I were the teacher who found her drunk to begin with, I might have contacted her family and asked that they come and get her.
Short of that, I am not certain if they could have legally (the school that is) locked her up somewhere safe.  But who would have thought she’d decide to lean out a window that “opened too far” and fall out?

Her daddy is a millionaire and so perhaps she sees this as her own starting stake in life. Who knows.
Personal responsibility has flown the coop long ago.

I think I’ll sue Tesco because I have overeaten and I think I may have gained a pant size.  It’s not my fault. The market is to blame. All that yummy food and all that variety and ALL THAT CHOCOLATE and the pasta (not together) well, how can a body resist? We aren’t supposed to resist and so on those grounds I think I’ll sue them.  I might sue myself as well.

Student left permanently disabled in drunken fall sues school for £300,000
By ANDREW LEVY
Last updated at 8:07 AM on 12th June 2009

A Cambridge student is suing a top boarding school for £300,000 after a drunken fall from a window left her permanently disabled.

Amy St Johnston was a 16-year-old pupil at Oundle School when she got drunk at a Valentine’s Ball and plunged from her first-floor room.

Miss St Johnston, now 20, claims the accident happened because teachers allowed a ‘drinking culture’ to form among senior pupils at the £22,800-a-year school.

Documents lodged at the High Court also state that the window she fell from failed to meet building regulations because it was able to open twelve inches - three times the legal limit of four inches.

The accident took place on February 26, 2005, when Miss St Johnston was in the lower sixth at the mixed independent school in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

She claims she started drinking a ‘combination of alcoholic drinks’ with other pupils at 6pm as they prepared for the Valentine’s Ball.

She continued to drink after returning to her boarding house, Wyatt House, after supper, before going out at 8pm.

A male teacher at the ball, who noticed Amy was ‘under the influence of alcohol’, said in an email two days later: ‘As Amy went to the toilet she was bouncing off an architrave and didn’t look totally in control of her body movements.’

He made her sit in a room for 20 minutes to ‘cool off’ but the writ alleges she returned to the ball as soon as he had left the room.

The same teacher is later claimed to have sent her back to her room under the supervision of another female pupil.

Miss St Johnston was given a breathalyser test by house mistress Sheila Hipple, which confirmed she had been drinking, and taken to her room.

At some point in the next ten minutes, the writ continues, she ‘leaned so far out of the window that she fell out’, plunging 15ft to the ground below.

Her spinal cord was damaged in the fall. She now suffers from partial paraplegia, which can lead to loss of limb movement and other complications.

Following the accident, Miss St Johnston, who walks with the help of crutches, left the 1,090-pupil school to continue her studies at a different sixth form.

She is now studying classics at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Her writ claims the school was in loco parentis, and accuses it of failing in its duty of care by leaving Miss St Johnston in a first-floor room with a window not fitted with a restricter while it was ‘known she was under the influence of alcohol’.

Miss St Johnston refused to discuss the case yesterday, saying: ‘I don’t really want to talk about it, I don’t think I should - partly because of legal reasons but also it’s just not something I want to discuss.’

Her father James, a 47-year-old millionaire financial sector worker for KNG Securities, and mother Emily, 44, also refused to comment last night at the family home in Woodbridge, near Ipswich.

However, a close friend of Miss St Johnston’s said: ‘She is a remarkable girl who has come through a lot with incredible determination.

‘She has never lost sight of how lucky she is and how supportive her family have been.

‘But she and her parents do feel she was failed by the school and that Oundle should bear some responsibility.’

Oundle’s rules state that sixth formers can drink beer, cider and wine at social events sanctioned by a house master or mistress where a ‘substantial meal’ is served.

Since 1969, the British Standard Code of Practice recommends that limiters are fitted on windows above ground level restricting opening to less than four inches, the writ adds.

The 1998 Edition of Building Regulations also made it a requirement they are fitted with limiters or safety guards to prevent falls.

Charles Bush, headmaster of Oundle School, refused to discuss the case yesterday.

However, spokesman Liz Dillarstone said: ‘The matter is being dealt with by the school’s legal advisors and Mr Bush is not in a position to comment further.’

Charles Bush, headmaster of Oundle School, refused to discuss the case

Oh well. A Bush in the picture?  Maybe it’s his fault!

SOURCE AND PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 06/12/2009 at 05:51 AM   
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   Thursday - June 04, 2009

Let’s be honest, there are losers and winners in this world.

Not only does this lady put things well, she is drop dead beautiful in the few pix I’ve seen of her.
But even if she weren’t that ... she is still a darn good word smith.

Last post for me for the night.
Cheers all.

Cambridge’s decision to let students know about their exam results in private is the latest evidence that we are bent on breeding fragility into the young, says Celia Walden.

By Celia Walden
The Telegraph

The young, it appears, are becoming fragile. For the first time in 300 years, exam results at Cambridge are to be sent privately to students, to curb the “fear” and “humiliation” of finding out from the board outside the university’s senate house that you got a 2:2, while standing next to someone you despised who got a first.

Meanwhile, Sir Ken Robinson, who is advising the Government on education, thinks we should do away with the whole exam thing, and leave children free to daub primitive murals along school walls. He didn’t say that, but he did insist that we have to “develop children’s creativity”, and once the c-word has been mentioned pretty much anything goes

Have you tried saying “creativity” without screwing up your face and affecting a peevish whine? It’s impossible, and it’s a whining, cloying, self-righteous word used by people who appear convinced that rigorous learning and a flourishing imagination are incompatible.

Nothing in history suggests that this is true. Great painters studied the Old Masters to learn their craft: Turner, for one, worked at the Dutch masters as a preliminary to developing his freer, original style.

Those were the days when artists painted pictures rather than “creating art”. Now, trendy educationalists would play down the nasty business of spelling, grammar and academic rigour, leaving us all free to emote. Yet many a parent would welcome some hard academic graft in state schools, when an increasing number of the most successful painters, actors, playwrights, musicians and even pop stars seem to have benefited from a more demanding education in the private sector.

In other areas, we seem bent on breeding emotional fragility into the young, from the egg and spoon race with no winners, to the diplomatic announcement of exam results, to produce a generation of brittle – but oh-so-"creative" - little souls.
The Senate house, where anxious students will no longer have to assemble for their results Photo: PA

AND ON ANOTHER SUBJECT SHE REPORTS ...

* This time last year, women were all at it: planting great big kisses on each other’s mouths at parties and political conferences nationwide. This year, it’s the men who are grasping each other in headlocks, grappling full-frontally like sumo wrestlers – and even kissing on the lips.

At Tuesday night’s Glamour magazine awards, the man-tussle was rife, with presenter James Corden making a grab at every male guest, in a display so primal we needed David Attenborough to do the voice-over. “What’s it all about?” he would wonder. “Women have always had the greet thing to themselves,” Corden tells me. “It feels good to say hi with a big old man-hug – everyone’s doing it now – and actually, it proves how straight you are.”

Formula One driver Jenson Button, who spent the evening deflecting man-tussles, disagrees. “I don’t care if it does prove how straight you are – if it’s man-on-man action I ain’t doing it.”

WALDEN

More, including one NSFQT ( Not Safe For Queasy Tummies )

Posted by peiper     on 06/04/2009 at 11:48 AM   
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   Wednesday - May 20, 2009

Better Hope She Has Broadband

A link to some direct and often humorous Safe Sex advertising campaigns around the internet and around the world. Sorry, no dancing condoms videos from India this time.

Nothing actually graphic here or at the linked sites, but don’t click the Continue Reading button if you’re uptight about such things ... a few of the pics at the links are pretty direct.

Alas, the blog software only allows me one hidden text thingy per post, so I had to put another of the naughty ones in the comments area. I gather Snow White has drifted a bit these days.

Personally, I think it’s great that ad agencies can use humor, puns, and interesting photography to get the attention such a subject needs.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/20/2009 at 02:35 PM   
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   Friday - May 15, 2009

We’re Not Keeping Score

Here is a drag ‘n drop map of the Middle East and that corner of the world. Pull the names of all the countries onto their proper map areas. Good luck. Even after the 3rd try I still had 3 mistakes. Hey, come on. When was the last time Chad was in the news? Or any of The ‘Stans? So excuuuuuuse me!

But it does show that my geography skills are a bit lacking for that part of the world. I’d do just as poorly if they made one with South East Asia and the South Pacific. Sorry, but those places have almost no impact on world events. Fiji is just a name, even if they are on the verge of having a revolution. And I’d have a tough time spotting Malaysia; I had to look closely at a map to realize it shared half an island with the island nation of Indonesia, and that Indonesia shares half of another island with Papua New Guinea. Who knew, unless you’ve been there? To Google Maps these are literally just gray areas.

Anyway, here’s the link. Give it a try. Good luck. Please ignore everything else at that website. It’s a source for commie school books and other lefty indoctrination crap, afro-centric and socialist learning aides to teach your children that history isn’t “yourstory” ...

“A people’s pedagogy, like a people’s history, should alert students to deep currents of justice and equality in U.S. history, and in diverse ways encourage students to try on the personas of people who worked to make this a more democratic society. A people’s history and pedagogy ought to allow students to recognize that ‘we’ were not necessarily the ones stealing land, dropping bombs, or breaking strikes. ‘We’ were ending slavery, fighting for women’s rights, organizing unions, marching against wars, and trying to create a society premised on the Golden Rule.”

Oh GAK.

But hey, let’s not judge a book by it’s cover, or an educational reform web site by the books they cover. Here’s a nice long, erudite essay they posted on the mess that is the Chicago school system, and why Arne Duncan - who is now Obama’s Secretary of Education - may not have done such a great job.. Note the pro-union, pro-tenure, neighborhood centric viewpoint. Are they bashing military schools, or just refusing to comment on how effective they are? But most of the essay is an attack by the no money lefties against the big money corporate lefties I think. And I learned a new PC term: these days the Hispanic demographic has to be referred to as “latino/a”. It’s an insightful article, even if you take away nothing more than a bit of understanding into how some people’s minds work.

Um, I stand by my first reaction. Oh GAK.

But give the map thingy a try just for fun.



[ Drew pokes around the web page a bit more ... ]

Aww, shiite! The whole damn page is uber-lefty central. Get a load of this crock of shit, used by your children’s teachers to destroy pride in their country and to forward international socialism. Hey, it’s just one lesson in the wonderful textbook you can get right here! Teaching For Justice In An Unjust World.

An important part of a person’s understanding of global issues is the recognition of the dramatic inequalities between nations and social classes with-in countries.

The purpose of this activity is to graphically demonstrate the vast differences in wealth between different areas of the world. It combines math, geography, writing, and social studies.

We remind students of some of the things we learned about colonialism - such as how great quantities of silver and gold were stolen from the Americas and taken to Europe. We also explain that current relations between countries and international organizations such as the World Trade Organization also affect how wealthy countries are. We make sure that students know the following terms: resources, GNP, wealth, distribution, income, power, and colonialism.

GAK, GAK, and triple GAK.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/15/2009 at 12:37 PM   
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   Sunday - May 10, 2009

A free college-level course: An American Citizen’s Guide to Government and Politics

Yes, it’s free. College level? So far, I learned most of this stuff in 4th-grade Civics. I should note that my younger sisters didn’t have Civics when they hit 4th-grade. I mentioned that in a speech I gave to my Toastmasters Club in January. Further evidence of the ‘dumbing down’ of the electorate.

So, for those of you who didn’t have Civics in grade-school, here is a FREE college-level course, courtesy of BYU.

An American Citizen’s Guide to Government and Politics

You’ll have to register, accept cookies, and reply to the email they’ll send. Enjoy!

Posted by Christopher     on 05/10/2009 at 12:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Education •  
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   Thursday - April 30, 2009

Heart attack patient told to be quiet by paramedic.  Great system huh? Medic told to retrain.

Yeah. Can you believe this? Retrain?
Toss the bum out on his ear.
Take a look at this.

Heart attack patient ordered to clean up own vomit
A paramedic ordered a heart attack patient clean up his own vomit and be quiet as he writhed in agony on a hospital floor, a disciplinary hearing heard.

Last Updated: 8:03PM BST 29 Apr 2009

Ambulance man Colin Shields failed to carry out basic checks and did not recognise the tell-tale signs of a heart attack - mistaking the patient’s symptoms for toothache.

He was given 10 months to retrain or face being struck off on Tuesday after the Health Professions Council ruled his fitness to practice was impaired.

The panel heard the victim dialled 999 because he was suffering severe jaw and lower back pain - classic symptoms of heart attack.

But when Shields arrived at his home in Manchester he failed to carry out even the most basic medical checks, and did not provide the patient - a diabetic - with any treatment.

It was only when the man demanded to be taken to hospital that Shields drove him to the nearby Manchester Royal Infirmary, the panel heard.

Shields did check the patient’s medical history, so did not know he also suffered from high blood pressure and high cholesterol, making him a prime candidate for a heart attack.

Laura Napley, for the HPC, said: “Mr Shields did not carry out any medical assessment of the patient, made him walk to and from the ambulance unaided and did not complete a patient report form.

“At the hospital, Patient A followed Mr Shields into a treatment room and was told to sit on the bed and wait for a doctor.

“Due to his intense pain, the patient said he preferred to lie on the floor. When he subsequently vomited, Mr Shields told him to be quiet and clean up the mess.”

Doctors later found he had suffered a massive heart attack and was minutes from death when they started treatment.

Shields admitted most of the allegations against him, saying he was ‘distracted’ on the day of the incident, July 30 2007.

The HPC panel, sitting in central London, ruled his fitness to practice was impaired and imposed a Conditions of Practice Order which requires Shields to complete training if he wishes to continue in the profession.

MORON MEDIC

Have to wonder what kind of training if any this medic-moron got.
Don’t they have to take any sort of test?
Scary stuff this.

Posted by peiper     on 04/30/2009 at 03:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Education • Health-Medicine • Scary Stuff • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Friday - April 03, 2009

School forced to apologise after teacher gives 11-year-old pupils a lesson in swearing.

Should this be filed under human interest or just plain dumb?

Well, betcha most kids these days have heard it by that age. Wouldn’t you think?
But teaching it in school too?  Not so sure about that.  In the history of the world has it ever been necessary to teach swearing in a school?

I keep reading about failing students. So this is how one class time is used? No wonder they’re failing. But they all get high marks in ......

School forced to apologise after teacher gives 11-year-old pupils a lesson in swearing

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:15 PM on 03rd April 2009

A school was under fire today after children as young as 11 were encouraged to shout obscenities during a lesson - in SWEARING.

Foul words including c*** and f*** were written on a blackboard before their meaning was explained to 30 Year 7 pupils in graphic detail by a teacher.

Officials at St Laurence School in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, say the lesson was part of a sex and relationship education programme designed to ‘dispel’ the myths of swear words.

But furious parents say they were not informed about the content of the one-hour class and say their children were left ‘deeply upset’ by the experience.

One parent, who asked not to be named, said: ‘This is a total disgrace. We send our children to school in good faith to gain an education - not qualifications in swear words.

‘Most of the children in that class had no idea what these words meant and have now been forced to grow up faster than their parents would like.

‘But what really angers me is that the parents were not asked for consent and the children were even told not to tell their parents that it took place.

‘They have not even issued a formal apology. This is an absolute outrage and I believe heads should roll for this.’

During the class, children aged 11 and 12 were asked to shout out all the swear words they could think of which could be used as slang for sex and the names of body parts.

Some pupils claim they were told by the teacher NOT to tell their parents about the details of the lesson.

It is also believed that one teacher was so outraged by the content of the class she refused to teach it.

Richard Clutterbuck, deputy headteacher at the school, defended the lesson - claiming it was following governors’ policy.

He said: ‘The school has a programme of sex and relationship education in accordance with the governors’ policy on sex and relationship education.

‘Part of the delivery of the programme is to ensure that the students use the correct terms when referring to the biological aspects of the programme and to dispel any use of slang terms.

‘With hindsight, the delivery of this particular lesson should not have focussed upon the slang terms and I must apologise for any distress caused.

‘We have taken the parental concerns very seriously and we have altered the delivery of the programme accordingly.

‘The sex and relationship programme has been delivered for many years in accordance with the governors’ policy on sex and relationship education and is well received by the students and parents.’

A spokesman for Wiltshire County Council said it was the responsibility of governors to decide the specifics of personal, social and health education lessons.

He said: ‘Government guidance makes it clear that sex and relationship education classes should allow children to learn, in age-appropriate ways throughout their school career, about how they are growing and changing, both physically and emotionally.

‘Schools aim to equip children as they grow up with the knowledge and skills to manage their lives and their relationships in healthy and responsible ways.

‘Part of this is exploring the correct and incorrect language to describe aspects of sex and relationships, and parts of the body.’

The Department for Children, Schools and Families reiterated the fact that governors determined the contents of sex education lessons within a school.

However, a spokesman added that the content should be age-appropriate.

THE MAIL

Posted by peiper     on 04/03/2009 at 12:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Education • UK •  
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   Tuesday - March 31, 2009

Teacher faces disciplinary action after parent uncovers racy lingerie photos online.

I JUST CAN NOT BELIEVE THESE STUPID ASS DUMMIES.  WHAT MORONS! 

Isn’t it interesting that buy chance they just happen to find her photos online.  Take a look.  What’s so bad about these?
The fat assed head teach is gonna give a “severe reprimand.” Get a life you stupid shit!  You and the complaining half assed parent.
STUPID - STUPID - STUPID !

LOL ... THE WIFE WONDERS IF ANY OF US WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL?

Teacher faces disciplinary action after parent uncovers racy lingerie photos online

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:35 PM on 31st March 2009

A teacher is facing disciplinary action after outraged parents spotted photographs of her posing in her underwear on the Internet.

Aspiring model Natasha Gray, 30, was reprimanded after a stunned parent wrote an anonymous letter complaining about the ‘provocative pictures’.

Miss Gray, who is the Head of PE and Dance at Manor Community College in Cambridge, is pictured wearing pink lingerie and stilettos on website iModel.com.

(a word or two about the site mentioned here. iModel.  Looks like crap. Tried to open and takes forever and when it does there’s not much worth seeing. Yes, there are a few ok but I never was able to see her at this site. Hardly worth the effort. Lots-a-bow-wows.)

A caption on her ‘Tasha’ homepage, which promotes her modelling work, states she is ‘willing to travel with expenses paid’.
Enlarge Teacher Natasha Gray at the SCHOOL DAZE LINK below.

‘Inappropriate’: Parents say pictures of aspiring model Natasha Gray, 30, Head of PE and dance at Manor Community College, Cambridge, were seen by students.

In 2002, Miss Gray was named Britain’s sexiest teacher after winning an ITV phone-in competition, just two weeks before she started her job at Manor Community College.

The angry letter from an unnamed parent said the ‘inappropriate’ pictures were ‘common knowledge’ among students as young as 11 at the school.

Seductive: Miss Gray has a website offering her services as a model

Winning beauty: Miss Gray was named Britain’s Sexiest Teacher two weeks before she started her job

It read: ‘I am a parent of a pupil at Manor Community College in Cambridge and was surprised when my child came home from school informing me that one of their teachers had some what I would call provocative pictures on a website.

‘From doing a bit of digging, it is apparently common knowledge about these photos, and has been for some time.

‘Any teacher is in a position of trust and surely this is inappropriate for not only the school, but also pupils.

‘I am disgusted that, even if these were taken before she became a teacher, Miss Gray has not even attempted to remove them.

‘I assume the pupils have a good giggle about it but I find it rather crass.’

Mother-of-two Claire Schofield, who is a governor at the secondary school and has one child there with another due to start in September, said she was surprised a teacher could be so careless.

‘I would hope that any teacher would be able to be some sort of responsible role model to children at the school,’ she said.

‘I don’t think she really thought this through.’

Headteacher Ben Slade insisted the photos had nothing to do with the school but said Miss Gray would be severely reprimanded.

Oblivious: Head teacher Ben Slade said the photos are ‘certainly a disciplinary matter’ but that Miss Gray will not be suspended

Bikini babe: Miss Gray qualified for the finals of Britain’s Sexiest but narrowly missed out.

He said: ‘I knew nothing about this. It is not on the school’s internet and we have very robust policies on how staff should behave in school.

‘This will certainly be dealt with most severely and will certainly be a disciplinary matter.

‘Teachers are entitled to their union representation and Miss Gray has been spoken to.

‘She will be asked to take the pictures down. This is not a matter for suspension, as much as I would like it to be in this case.

‘If the pictures were more pornographic or if they involved someone of a dubious age it would be more serious.’

Following her win as Britain’s sexiest teacher Miss Gray entered a competition against winners from six other professions to be named ‘Britain’s Sexiest’.

She was narrowly pipped to the top prize by a fitness instructor.

Speaking after the competition she said: ‘It was absolutely fantastic. I had such a brilliant day. The audience was great and helped me get into it.’

Miss Gray was unavailable for comment yesterday.

SCHOOL DAZE,SCHOOL DAZE

Posted by peiper     on 03/31/2009 at 08:14 AM   
Filed Under: • Education • Eye-Candy • Jack Booted Thugs • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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Girl becomes youngest scout to scoop up all 33 badges… at the age of nine.

Now why the heck would I post this possibly boring article on a mostly political blog site?
Cause there’s so darn much out there about feral yoots even in her age group that it just plain feels nice to acknowledge this one kid.
And I bet there might be a lot more that are not little savages.

Anyway, hey. All those badges?  This kid was sure dedicated and single minded and had her eye on her target.

She’s also a little doll and I betcha a darn good student.

She’s eye-candy in the nicest possible way.  But gee ... I sure hope she doesn’t grow up and become a civil rights lawyer.
Whatever she does do, I’d also bet she will be a success at it.

So hats off and Kudos to this youngster.

Girl becomes youngest scout to scoop up all 33 badges… at the age of nine

By David Wilkes
Last updated at 1:07 AM on 28th March 2009

When Rebecca Hooper joined the Cubs, she was determined to be more than just one of the pack.

It took her little more than a year to earn all 33 available activity badges.

She has become the first girl in the country and, at the age of nine, the youngest Cub of either sex to achieve the feat. 

Rebecca, who was ten this month, has been saluted for her ‘determination and enthusiasm’ by the Scout Association after mastering activities ranging from astronomy to animal care and DIY to martial arts.

Girls have been allowed in the Cubs since 1991, and Rebecca chose them over the Brownies because she found their activities more appealing.

She set to work after a pack leader jokingly told her that she needed to ‘pass all the badges’ before she could achieve her silver Scouting award.

Rebecca, of Toft Monks, near Beccles, Norfolk, hopes to become a vet and particularly enjoyed looking after her family’s pets for the animal carer badge.

For the Air Activities badge, she took her first flight in a small private aeroplane, which was organised by her stepfather Mik Horn, an IT technician, who has a private pilot’s licence.

Other badges saw Rebecca also attend judo lessons, make a computer desk, cook her family a roast dinner, repair a puncture on her bicycle, visit a synagogue, learn how to read a map, sail a boat and tidy up her local churchyard.

Her mother Helen Horn, a teacher, said: ‘I am really proud of her. She has been really dedicated and has had to work very hard to achieve this.’

Rebecca’s passion for Scouting is in the blood. Her mother was a Queen’s Guide, the highest Girl Guide award in her day, and her grandfather ran a Scout troop.

Rebecca, a pupil at Glebeland Primary School, will join the Sea Scouts in September - and her next aim is to get all their 60 badges. Her brother Ben, 12, is in the Sea Scouts, who meet in the same hall on the same night as her Cub pack.

There is clearly something in the Norfolk air that inspires the Cubs - last year the Mail told how ten-year-old Ben Spratling, from Norwich, won all 33 badges along with Leon Johnson, also ten, from Stockport.

A WINNER

Posted by peiper     on 03/31/2009 at 06:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Awards • Daily Life • Education • UK •  
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