Thank you for sharing that informative article, which quotes the actual emailed reasons for the failing grade:
You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level. I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade."
The article also explains why the Professor, a guy with 20 years of college teaching experience, is in his 1st year at Galveston:
The professor, who is new to Galveston, relocated (to a non-tenure-track position) because his wife holds an academic job in Houston, and they have had to work hard to find jobs in the same area. He stressed that the students' failings were academic as well as behavioral. Most, he said, couldn't do a "break-even analysis" in which students were asked to consider a product and its production costs per unit, and determine the production levels needed to reach a profit.
In most of his career, he said, he has rarely awarded grades of F except for academic dishonesty. He said he has never failed an entire class before, but felt he had no choice after trying to control the class and complaining to administrators at the university.
Students have complained that they need this class to graduate, and Horwitz said that based on the academic and behavioral issues in class, they do not deserve to graduate with degrees in business fields (the majors for which the course is designed and required).
Those who give students their grades should not be the same people that give the students their education.
It is important to note that the Atlanta Public Schools' cheating happened *after* the tests were administered. After the tests were collected and the teachers who administered the tests went home, some other "educators" had erasing parties, where they got together and changed incorrect answers. So, to me, racketeering was the appropriate charge -- those "educators" ran a racket when they got together, circumvented test-security protocols and changed official state records (the exams).
My partner is the Principal of a public elementary school in Georgia.... the school is not part of the Atlanta Public School system, but is in a school district next-door to Atlanta. My partner's school has a very strict testing security protocol. When tests arrive in the school, the materials are locked in a safe inside a locked room that only the "testing administrator" controls. (This "testing administrator" is usually an Assistant Principal.) Anyone who goes into that room while the tests are in the school has to sign a log posted outside the room. The school's security system has a camera pointed at the room's door and that footage from that camera is saved; someone in the school system's main office apparently spot-checks the log against the footage. When the seals on the packets of test booklets are broken (in order to pass out the tests), two teachers must sign a paper saying that they witnessed the seals being broken. Any "testing abnormality" (the air-conditioning went out, loud noises or other distractions happened, etc.) has to be documented and a written explanation submitted with the tests.
My understanding is that the Atlanta Public Schools had a similar testing security protocol... so the "educators" who cheated really went out of their way to cheat. According to newspaper reports, one Atlanta "educator" even wore gloves so that her fingerprints would not be on tests.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sowed suspicion about the veracity of the test scores in 2009
Actually, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) newspaper was one of Beverly Hall's biggest cheerleaders. Bloggers were pointing out problems with the Atlanta test scores for years before the AJC looked into it. The cheating wasn't really a secret -- someone was even using the screen name "Beverly FRAUD" to post comments on the AJC's own website.
The AJC ignored all those allegations of cheating until Beverly Hall was named 2009 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).... and then the newspaper reluctantly started investigating her.
RICO was intended to be used against violent mobsters.
But these Atlanta "educators" were mobsters -- they used gang tactics to run the schools, kept thousands of children from receiving their educations and ruined the livelihoods of those teachers and principals who refused to cheat.
As I see it, the serious candidates in the Republican party are (in no particular order):
1 Marco Rubio (experience: over ten years in congress, can win elections).
You're wrong about Rubio's having "over ten years in congress". Rubio did serve several terms in the Florida State House of Representatives, but he has never been a US Representative and is still a first term senator, having been elected in 2010. He's about as qualified as Obama was when Obama won the Presidency. He's probably unelectable thanks to some stupid moves he's made -- he voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
2 Scott Walker (experience: Governor, smashing unions and winning hard political fights)
George W. Bush used to say "I'm a uniter, not a divider." Scott Walker is his opposite, which leads me to think that he is not electable. Walker is still in his first term and he dropped out of college, which is a big negative (in my view). He was only one semester short of a degree, but he's never bothered to finish? Something's not quite right there.
3 Chris Christy (experience: Governor, reaches across the aisle, achieves Republican goals in a Democratic state).
Christy is a corrupt New Jersey politician. The question is whether or not that corruption will catch up to him before the election. I think it will.
IMHO, Republican primary voters appear incapable of recognizing competency. There are several good Republican Governors out there, but they're not on anybody's radar screen. The Governor of New Mexico is one -- she's in her second term, has apparently done a good job because she has very high public opinion poll ratings, and she happens to be a hispanic woman.... but few people outside of NM (and its neighboring states) have ever heard of her.
Crooked politicians & public officials may receive email, but their actual communication is done by text messages... because they usually can hide their text messages from freedom of information act requests.
Here's an example: In Georgia, fired Dekalb County School System Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson did all her business via text messages:
According to the article, the school district was willing to give 12 people their jobs back if the attorney withdrew an open records request for a copy of Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson's text messages.
Recently I went through a couple of job interviews in MNCs, SMEs and start-ups alike. All of them grilled my CS theory or Java knowledge. Almost no interviewer asked me about my other skills (or past experiences) that could be helpful in the developer position
nerdyalien,
The secret of job interviewing is telling the interviewer about your skills and past experiences -- and explaining how relevant those are to the position you are interviewing for --without sounding like a self-centered jerk.
Thing 1: Didn't anyone think to take a picture of the device and ask if anyone knew what it was?
The bomb squad did better than than -- one of their members was put in a fire truck's basket and lifted up to be right next to the device/pinhole camera.
You should learn about the STEAM (with an 'A') movement. The idea is to add Art + Design to the equation, so that STEM is transformed into STEAM.
The idea makes sense to me, but I also see that there is an advantage of leaving the 'A' out of STEM -- having 'art' in the acronym would make it more obvious that the plutocrafts' real goal with STEM is to turn all the workers into starving artists.
I'm in N Central Florida and I've regularly seen traceroutes leaving local residential/commericial access, go up to a NSA-enabled router in Atlanta, and back down to a local college.
Here is what else you should know about Nokia 215. It has a 2.4-inch display, 0.3 MP camera on the back (which can shoot video), 8 MB of RAM (that is not a typo)
Well that's one way to keep Android from being ported to it...
But, as you astutely point out, so much of the enterprise business simply can't be moved for legal reasons, or the cost to move the stuff is so immense, it would take many years of active, focused effort (and billions and billions of dollars) to move it. In my Data Center, we had a lot of the major airlines as clients as well as some of the financial and regulatory clients, so I know exactly what you mean.
You're a goner. An airline (or another of your major clients) will take over your firm.
The only way US airlines can continue being profitable is to keep lowering their costs. If taking over a supplier is what they need to do to lower their costs, then they'll do just that.
Back in 2012, Delta Airlines spent $150 million to buy the Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania. Delta then focused the refinery on making jet fuel, which flooded the marketplace with supply, lowering Delta's fuel costs by $240+ million each year!
I suspect it would be a lot easier for a Airline, which already has an extensive IT dept and CTO, to take over an IT provider than a refinery!
Why would an employer want to turn down a self-motivated candidate that spent his weekends reading documentation with a portfolio full of projects for a fresh out of college kid who spent his weekends getting drunk with a small portfolio of school projects?
The employer will turn down the self-motivated candidate whenever the employer needs a new drinking buddy.
Slashdot Mirror
TFS could have gotten her name right in the title, though.
I don't know how I screwed that up but I did -- "Susan" was the name I put in the title of my submission.
You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level. I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade."
The article also explains why the Professor, a guy with 20 years of college teaching experience, is in his 1st year at Galveston:
The professor, who is new to Galveston, relocated (to a non-tenure-track position) because his wife holds an academic job in Houston, and they have had to work hard to find jobs in the same area. He stressed that the students' failings were academic as well as behavioral. Most, he said, couldn't do a "break-even analysis" in which students were asked to consider a product and its production costs per unit, and determine the production levels needed to reach a profit.
In most of his career, he said, he has rarely awarded grades of F except for academic dishonesty. He said he has never failed an entire class before, but felt he had no choice after trying to control the class and complaining to administrators at the university.
Students have complained that they need this class to graduate, and Horwitz said that based on the academic and behavioral issues in class, they do not deserve to graduate with degrees in business fields (the majors for which the course is designed and required).
Over here in the UK, if it doesn't involve a six-foot-deep trench, you're not even getting past the modern rubbish into the proper archaeology.
In America, we don't brag about living atop six feet of trash...
If it ends up being Hillary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush,
Who would move the US more to the right: Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush?
My current thinking is that Hillary would.
I'm going to vote for Hillary because....she isn't overly corrupt and she's not bat shit crazy.
That's quite a ringing endorsement.
Those who give students their grades should not be the same people that give the students their education.
It is important to note that the Atlanta Public Schools' cheating happened *after* the tests were administered. After the tests were collected and the teachers who administered the tests went home, some other "educators" had erasing parties, where they got together and changed incorrect answers. So, to me, racketeering was the appropriate charge -- those "educators" ran a racket when they got together, circumvented test-security protocols and changed official state records (the exams).
My partner is the Principal of a public elementary school in Georgia.... the school is not part of the Atlanta Public School system, but is in a school district next-door to Atlanta. My partner's school has a very strict testing security protocol. When tests arrive in the school, the materials are locked in a safe inside a locked room that only the "testing administrator" controls. (This "testing administrator" is usually an Assistant Principal.) Anyone who goes into that room while the tests are in the school has to sign a log posted outside the room. The school's security system has a camera pointed at the room's door and that footage from that camera is saved; someone in the school system's main office apparently spot-checks the log against the footage. When the seals on the packets of test booklets are broken (in order to pass out the tests), two teachers must sign a paper saying that they witnessed the seals being broken. Any "testing abnormality" (the air-conditioning went out, loud noises or other distractions happened, etc.) has to be documented and a written explanation submitted with the tests.
My understanding is that the Atlanta Public Schools had a similar testing security protocol... so the "educators" who cheated really went out of their way to cheat. According to newspaper reports, one Atlanta "educator" even wore gloves so that her fingerprints would not be on tests.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sowed suspicion about the veracity of the test scores in 2009
Actually, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) newspaper was one of Beverly Hall's biggest cheerleaders. Bloggers were pointing out problems with the Atlanta test scores for years before the AJC looked into it. The cheating wasn't really a secret -- someone was even using the screen name "Beverly FRAUD" to post comments on the AJC's own website.
The AJC ignored all those allegations of cheating until Beverly Hall was named 2009 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).... and then the newspaper reluctantly started investigating her.
RICO was intended to be used against violent mobsters.
But these Atlanta "educators" were mobsters -- they used gang tactics to run the schools, kept thousands of children from receiving their educations and ruined the livelihoods of those teachers and principals who refused to cheat.
She can't hear reality over the roar of the hundred million dollars she was paid for halving the shareholder value of HP.
I hope she runs.
A Fool and Her Money Are Soon Parted....
As I see it, the serious candidates in the Republican party are (in no particular order): 1 Marco Rubio (experience: over ten years in congress, can win elections).
You're wrong about Rubio's having "over ten years in congress". Rubio did serve several terms in the Florida State House of Representatives, but he has never been a US Representative and is still a first term senator, having been elected in 2010. He's about as qualified as Obama was when Obama won the Presidency. He's probably unelectable thanks to some stupid moves he's made -- he voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
2 Scott Walker (experience: Governor, smashing unions and winning hard political fights)
George W. Bush used to say "I'm a uniter, not a divider." Scott Walker is his opposite, which leads me to think that he is not electable. Walker is still in his first term and he dropped out of college, which is a big negative (in my view). He was only one semester short of a degree, but he's never bothered to finish? Something's not quite right there.
3 Chris Christy (experience: Governor, reaches across the aisle, achieves Republican goals in a Democratic state).
Christy is a corrupt New Jersey politician. The question is whether or not that corruption will catch up to him before the election. I think it will.
IMHO, Republican primary voters appear incapable of recognizing competency. There are several good Republican Governors out there, but they're not on anybody's radar screen. The Governor of New Mexico is one -- she's in her second term, has apparently done a good job because she has very high public opinion poll ratings, and she happens to be a hispanic woman.... but few people outside of NM (and its neighboring states) have ever heard of her.
Here's an example: In Georgia, fired Dekalb County School System Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson did all her business via text messages:
WSB-TV: Lawsuit raises concerns about DeKalb Schools corruption (Dec. 4, 2012)/
According to the article, the school district was willing to give 12 people their jobs back if the attorney withdrew an open records request for a copy of Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson's text messages.
Scientists and engineers are by definition not supposed to be ethical.
Professional Engineers (PEs) disagree:
Ethics - National Society of Professional Engineers
and
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code of Ethics for Engineers
Recently I went through a couple of job interviews in MNCs, SMEs and start-ups alike. All of them grilled my CS theory or Java knowledge. Almost no interviewer asked me about my other skills (or past experiences) that could be helpful in the developer position
nerdyalien,
The secret of job interviewing is telling the interviewer about your skills and past experiences -- and explaining how relevant those are to the position you are interviewing for --without sounding like a self-centered jerk.
Thing 1: Didn't anyone think to take a picture of the device and ask if anyone knew what it was?
The bomb squad did better than than -- one of their members was put in a fire truck's basket and lifted up to be right next to the device/pinhole camera.
How about "STEEM" (with an extra E for English)?
You should learn about the STEAM (with an 'A') movement. The idea is to add Art + Design to the equation, so that STEM is transformed into STEAM.
The idea makes sense to me, but I also see that there is an advantage of leaving the 'A' out of STEM -- having 'art' in the acronym would make it more obvious that the plutocrafts' real goal with STEM is to turn all the workers into starving artists.
I'm in N Central Florida and I've regularly seen traceroutes leaving local residential/commericial access, go up to a NSA-enabled router in Atlanta, and back down to a local college.
Fixed that for you.
Hey, McGruber! The Cumbres & Toltec is waiting for you. Ball's in your court...
Is that you jaybawb?
chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff!
Here is what else you should know about Nokia 215. It has a 2.4-inch display, 0.3 MP camera on the back (which can shoot video), 8 MB of RAM (that is not a typo)
Well that's one way to keep Android from being ported to it...
But, as you astutely point out, so much of the enterprise business simply can't be moved for legal reasons, or the cost to move the stuff is so immense, it would take many years of active, focused effort (and billions and billions of dollars) to move it. In my Data Center, we had a lot of the major airlines as clients as well as some of the financial and regulatory clients, so I know exactly what you mean.
You're a goner. An airline (or another of your major clients) will take over your firm.
The only way US airlines can continue being profitable is to keep lowering their costs. If taking over a supplier is what they need to do to lower their costs, then they'll do just that.
Back in 2012, Delta Airlines spent $150 million to buy the Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania. Delta then focused the refinery on making jet fuel, which flooded the marketplace with supply, lowering Delta's fuel costs by $240+ million each year!
I suspect it would be a lot easier for a Airline, which already has an extensive IT dept and CTO, to take over an IT provider than a refinery!
...because Karma will catch up to them.
"When parents die they're buried in the ground, but when a child dies you bury the child in your heart" - korean proverb
Yeah, because being a farmer is such a cushy gig.
Modern farm tractors are equipped with air-conditioned cabs and stereo systems -- Farming (in the first world) is a lot cushier than it used to be!
At the call center we called them "idiot cards" because you'd have to be one to think they were any benefit to you.
"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself." - Mark Twain
Why would an employer want to turn down a self-motivated candidate that spent his weekends reading documentation with a portfolio full of projects for a fresh out of college kid who spent his weekends getting drunk with a small portfolio of school projects?
The employer will turn down the self-motivated candidate whenever the employer needs a new drinking buddy.