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Play this till you get it right! http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

If you don't know what is wrong, or even if you do, you might find this useful: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

One obvious way to game this system is to push out the low-performing students, thus raising the averages. Then, just as in the "Texas miracle", you cook the books and falsify the dropout rate.

This article underpins what you said ...

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/14_03/sat 143.shtml

CC.

Especially considering that in Texas, the state that GW comes from, only 300 of 1000 students in GW's SHOWCASE school of the no child left behind program actually graduated from high school.

Actually, they have done pretty much that, but it appears to be done in-house. The phishing giveaway, however, is the "Warning: Failure to Verify your ID may result in Account Suspension." While Ebay might (and did) create such as system, they would not make it mandatory unless fraud was not only rampant, but nigh universal. The funky URL is an incidental side clue; I got all 10 correct without even the URLs-- Safari doesn't show the "mouse-over" text, and the active URLs are all to a pop up "disabled" message. Mind you, while the style is getting better, the Phishers still don't have what it takes to be a professional writer for an actual company-- which would allow them a better way to earn a dishonest living.

For example, consider from number two: "It has come to our attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website." If there was a genuine message on these lines from PayPal, it wouldn't be phrased thus. It hasn't "come to their attention" that the account needs updating... that's (hypothetically) the Paypal POLICY, which bloody well better not have just come to their attention; it's come to Paypal's attention that you haven't done so, and were it not a phishing scam, they would tell you so... and probably quote the chapter and verse of the user agreement saying you had to do it.

(The other rted flags for me were: message 4, the "connection secured" logo on an e-mail and the "Mail sent to this address cannot be answered"; message 6 "We regret to inform you, that we were unable"-- a misplaced comma; message 7, no rational connection as to how monthly validation contributes to "Best Possible" service; message 8, "you dont leave us any choice"; message 10, your records being out of date is not a "problem with our services".)

On the other hand, thanks to our our wonderful education system most people (aside from professional writers of one sort or another) no longer understand these sorts of linguistic subtleties. And many of them are oblivious trusting liberal arts majors who do whatever their computer tells them.

We're doomed, I tell you. Doomed, doomed, doomed.