In New York City, University Heights High School is being evicted from the Bronx Community College campus because the college is overcrowded. Pioneering programs including the High School for Math, Science, and Engineering at The City College and the Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan, Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, Middle College High School at Medgar Evers and the High School for the Sciences located at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, face similar fates.
At the same time, other cities and states are discovering the value of connecting ordinary high school students with colleges. In Raeford, North Carolina, high school seniors from SandHoke Early College High School are taking classes at Sandhills Community College. The program is designed to attract students whose parents do not have college degrees and allows the students to earn up to two years of college credit tuition free. North Carolina now has a total seventy early-college high schools that target at-risk students.
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March 1, 2010
February 28, 2010
Why Make a Book Trailer? Do They Work?
There is only so much marketing copy you can write about your book before you have saturated your target audience. But in one minute or less you can tap into the visual, auditory and emotional senses of your potential reader with a book trailer. Like its cousin the movie trailer, a book trailer is designed to get the buzz going and drive sales, or at least more interest.
What makes for a good book trailer?
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What makes for a good book trailer?
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February 26, 2010
David Geffen Is “You’re So Vain”: Carly Simon Reveals Song Inspiration?
According to an interpretation of a clip of a remastered version of "You're So Vain," Carly Simon named David Geffen as the target of the song.
When the song is played backwards, at least as heard in the clip, a voice whispers "David."
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When the song is played backwards, at least as heard in the clip, a voice whispers "David."
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February 23, 2010
Bali: A Soft Target
Four years after its most recent bombings Bali is still reeling from the aftershocks. How could such a peaceful people be the victims of such violence?
The idea was to find a quick getaway for a little R&R after my husband did business in Singapore (that's what one does there, other than shop the malls and eat.) We chose Bali, dismissing our friends' fears that the Indonesian paradise remained a "soft target" since the restaurant bombings of 2005.
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The idea was to find a quick getaway for a little R&R after my husband did business in Singapore (that's what one does there, other than shop the malls and eat.) We chose Bali, dismissing our friends' fears that the Indonesian paradise remained a "soft target" since the restaurant bombings of 2005.
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February 19, 2010
Roman Polanski and Lady MacJustice
For the second time in her life, rape victim Samantha Geimer has been forcibly violated. This time, not by Roman Polanski, the famed filmmaker who had agreed in 1978 to plead guilty to the charge of having sex with a minor, but by both the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office and the Los Angeles County judiciary. This recent action came after much tumult was created by a television documentary that openly revealed the subterfuge of a judge who disregarded the victim in favor of his own self-aggrandizing pursuit of media fame. After three decades, the prosecutors now in charge of the matter have declared by their actions that a victim's rights be damned -- at least when the accused is a high-profile target. Geimer herself has proclaimed: "I have become a victim of the actions of the district attorney."
Over thirty years ago, Roman Polanski played by our legal system's rules. At that time, the then district attorney chose to side with the best interest of the child, as he so simply and eloquently put it, so that she could not be exploited or victimized "a second time." So he allowed Polanski to plead guilty to having sex with a minor and receive a sentence of time served equal to the time he spent imprisoned in a California penitentiary for psychiatric evaluation. Polanski correctly discovered that the judge was going to ignore the plea arrangement and sentence him, essentially, to a lifetime in jail, so that the judge could look like a hero to the press. This forced Polanski to take his only out: fleeing to his home country to be protected from an American justice system gone awry.
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Over thirty years ago, Roman Polanski played by our legal system's rules. At that time, the then district attorney chose to side with the best interest of the child, as he so simply and eloquently put it, so that she could not be exploited or victimized "a second time." So he allowed Polanski to plead guilty to having sex with a minor and receive a sentence of time served equal to the time he spent imprisoned in a California penitentiary for psychiatric evaluation. Polanski correctly discovered that the judge was going to ignore the plea arrangement and sentence him, essentially, to a lifetime in jail, so that the judge could look like a hero to the press. This forced Polanski to take his only out: fleeing to his home country to be protected from an American justice system gone awry.
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February 3, 2010
Is Coke’s Fizz Going Flat?
Like a tobacco company, Coca-Cola primarily sells one product--in its case, sugar water--that is linked to a number of diseases. It's under fire all over the world for its environmental, human rights, and health record. Here at home, it finds itself as the potential target of new taxation, expelled from America's schools, and outflanked by its nimbler competitor, PepsiCo. Angry parents, activist scientists, and wary shareholders are watching the company's every step.
Check sales. Notwithstanding hundreds of millions of dollars invested in advertising, over the past decade, U.S. sales, per capita, of flagship Coca-Cola have declined by 26 percent between 1998 and 2008. (Though Pepsi-Cola sales have declined even more, PepsiCo can make up in sales of Frito-Lay, Quaker, and Tropicana products for what it loses in soda sales.)
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Check sales. Notwithstanding hundreds of millions of dollars invested in advertising, over the past decade, U.S. sales, per capita, of flagship Coca-Cola have declined by 26 percent between 1998 and 2008. (Though Pepsi-Cola sales have declined even more, PepsiCo can make up in sales of Frito-Lay, Quaker, and Tropicana products for what it loses in soda sales.)
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Recent Events Reinforce the Need for Emergency Preparedness
As illustrated by the attempted airline terrorist attack on Christmas, our country continues to be a target for terrorists. Beyond the transportation industry, a priority on the mind of anyone responsible for the safety and security of a facility is, "how do I ensure that my company is prepared?" As a nation that has lived through the horrors of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, coupled with ongoing Homeland Security warnings and efforts to support those suffering from disasters elsewhere, such as Haiti, we understand that emergency preparedness is crucial to our nation's security.
While those tragic events have brought increased attention to emergency response, the need for assistance far predates recent history. The Federal Emergency Management Agency traces its beginnings to be the Congressional Act of 1803, which is generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation. That Act provided assistance to a New Hampshire town that experienced an extensive fire. Since then, our nation's emergency response organizations have significantly contributed to communities in need.
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While those tragic events have brought increased attention to emergency response, the need for assistance far predates recent history. The Federal Emergency Management Agency traces its beginnings to be the Congressional Act of 1803, which is generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation. That Act provided assistance to a New Hampshire town that experienced an extensive fire. Since then, our nation's emergency response organizations have significantly contributed to communities in need.
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February 2, 2010
Things My Developmentally Disabled Daughter Has Taught Me About Life…
1. If someone tells you you can't have it. You pull your pants, along with your princess panties, down to your ankles, lift your hands up in the middle of a crowded Target aisle, scream, "YES I CAN", and wait for someone to buy it for you. This works better if your mom is embarrassed and telling you to stop it right now. That's how you know it's working.
2. When boys call you names, and try to make you feel inferior, you tell them they smell like a diaper toilet, push them down, and climb higher than them on the jungle gym. When you get to the top, tell them you are pretty, and they lost. This crushes them Immensely.
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2. When boys call you names, and try to make you feel inferior, you tell them they smell like a diaper toilet, push them down, and climb higher than them on the jungle gym. When you get to the top, tell them you are pretty, and they lost. This crushes them Immensely.
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January 29, 2010
The New Pentagon Budget: Paying More, Getting Less
The new budget now being trotted out for the Pentagon is a tired old document, bereft of the many significant changes needed to revive our decaying defenses. Worse, the Pentagon's masters and its peanut galleries in Congress, the press, and think tanks opine delusions that anything significant is changing.
Much will be made of a few reluctant acknowledgments of reality and old news painted as noteworthy. The Navy won't plan on, for now, a new cruiser it can't afford even under the wildest budget growth assumptions. The Army will continue redesigning the vehicles for its "system of system" target hunting technologies that we now know can't find even primitive enemies. The Air Force will press on for a new bomber to try, yet again, to attack what it called decades ago "critical nodes." The Marine Corps will declare a return to its amphibious warfare heritage: to fight its way onto hostile shores - something it has not done since 1945.
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Much will be made of a few reluctant acknowledgments of reality and old news painted as noteworthy. The Navy won't plan on, for now, a new cruiser it can't afford even under the wildest budget growth assumptions. The Army will continue redesigning the vehicles for its "system of system" target hunting technologies that we now know can't find even primitive enemies. The Air Force will press on for a new bomber to try, yet again, to attack what it called decades ago "critical nodes." The Marine Corps will declare a return to its amphibious warfare heritage: to fight its way onto hostile shores - something it has not done since 1945.
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