No one said that the journalists were trespassing into high-security areas, the report says that they "crossed security lines at some official buildings".
I don't really feel like anyone who hasn't experienced or seen this phenomenon first-hand is going to have a real sense of what a "security line" entails, or how arbitrary they can be. Three weeks ago when I was in Washington DC, I watched about ten journalists get arrested for being on the wrong side of a police line - including Colin Powell's personal photographer. At this event (a political protest that the journalists were covering) the police made well over 500 illegal arrests, and ALL of which that have come to trial so far have been thrown out. I myself was arrested for providing medical care to protestors, while breaking no laws - my charge, and the charge of the reporters, "failure to obey an order to disperse", is one that dozens of arrestees have gotten thrown out on the premise that no such order was ever given - which the Metro PD doesn't deny at trial.
Were journalists intentionally targetted as journalists? Probably not. However, the arbitrary use of arrest as a tool to silence freedom of expression affected their ability to get an article to press - just ask the Washington Post reporter, the UMaryland journalists, or any of the other members of the press who spent the night in jail in the name of a "security line". No wonder the U.S. ranks 17th in this study.
My sentiments exactly. From the perspective of Fortune magazine, we're failing to buy into their incredibly narrow definitions of success. I'm overeducated and underemployed by CHOICE - I make about $24,000 a year, in NYC no less, but by making some wise lifestyle choices, I'm living a much happier life than those who are trying to build their life around the Fortune magazine model. What are my age cohorts supposed to be making at my age, according to Forbes & Co.? $40/hr? I suggest that my fellow Gen-Xers play basketball instead of golf - if this saves us $1000 each per year, after allowing for taxes, that's over 30 more hours we have to spend with our friends money well "spent". Support local artists at $5-10 a show rather than going to see some $45 arena show, and you might actually see some talent.
Unfortunately, the effect of this is that we might start thinking for ourselves, and this is the last thing Fortune wants us to do - we might start realizing that economic indicators like the GDP don't actually measure economic health for normal people, and we might not act in a way that allows them to continue with their unsustainable worldview. This article sums up my life well - the person featured in the article is a real person, according to my similarly employed housemate, and a friend of hers. That's because we have time to make friends with interesting people, like Onion staff writers, because we're not networking at your boring parties:)
You can grab the techs around you and start organizing. As a former political organizer, what I've learned is that lots of people know what sucks in their lives and why, but realize they can't take on their problems alone. An organizer is the person who says, "The person down the street from you feels the same way, so does your next door neighbor - let's meet at 7PM next Monday and do something." If you, or anyone else reading this, is in NYC, and you want to get involved in fighting the RIAA EFFECTIVELY, through direct action and media rather than the courts, contact me, we've started a group (about ten of us so far). My e-mail address is jgoldberg at nowldef dot org. If you're not from NYC, go to techcoop.info and find a group near you.
-Jon
I'm amazed that no one seemed to mention that TW/AOL, as a condition of merging, had to OPEN THEIR CABLE MODEM NETWORK! Competing ISPs, in theory, are able to give you cable modem service in TW/AOL-serviced areas. Right now, your three choices are Road Runner, AOL, and Earthlink. Which really means two choices. However, I'm posting this from an Earthlink cable modem account which runs over TWC-installed lines. There's the added bonus that I pay $42 a month for service, all-inclusive, rather than $60, as when I had cable modem service without cable TV.
and typing was prohibited until you were an upperclassman. If the teacher couldn't read your handwriting, well, that was YOUR problem and you got an F.
And that's the point, isn't it? Speaking as someone who spent three years at a school for students with learning disabilities, because I had/have subtle motor problems that makes writing for me especially difficult, I would be the first to welcome the death of "penmanship" as a graded skill.
For years, people assumed I was unwilling, or unable, to do my work. I failed classes that required any amount of writing, and in 4th grade, that's pretty damn hard. After three years of intensive occupational therapy, and self-paced learning, I managed to not only finish high school, but get accepted to, and earn a degree from, a first-tier college. In an average week, I rarely scrawl anything more than a phone number or two, and that's usually in Graffiti, at that.
I agree that computers aren't necessarily an effective educational tool, especially in a classroom setting. However, many of the skills you mentioned simply aren't as relevant to one's education as they were when they incorporated into the elementary school curriculum. It's important for us to rethink even the fundamental elements of the educational process.
And while we're at it, let's start by rethinking the assumption that assumes that the purpose of education (according to the Federal Gov't) is for us to be efficient economic producers. I'd rather use my education for MY own improvement, not the GDP's.
I'm amused by the financier's coincidental(?) apparent relationship to the Sperling family from Robert Heinlein's series of books about the lives of Lazarus Long. The Sperlings were one of the original long-lifed families. Perhaps we've come across their dirty little secret at last?
Actually, post-Brandenburg, you CAN say that it's scheduled for Monday at City Hall, just as long as you aren't saying it Monday morning near City Hall. That's the "imminent lawless action" part - you can't say something that is likely to incite something that's going to happen right now.
Can someone mod this down? I went into Slashdot comments to find a link to the challenge, and found the answer instead. Sigh...a spoiler warning would have been good.
Re:Join Americorps -- Help Domestically
on
Volunteer Work Abroad?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Americorps is about the last place you would want to go if you're looking to do charitable work. If you join Americorps, you're most likely to end up in a intern-level job at a large corporate non-profit making less than the minimum wage ($802 a month, I believe, $826 in urban areas). The program was conceived of to allow middle-class kids with parents who will help support them to do work in communities they don't know the first thing about. It's an exercise in cynicism. And the "decent $$" you get at the end is $4700, and you're severely limited to what you can spend it on. So after a year's work photocopying, since Americorps jobs can't be direct service jobs, you've made $14,612, which hopefully was enough to live on. Maybe in a rural area this works out OK, but in NYC, forget it. If you go to here there's more info. Check out the patronizing photo while you're there. It's so....Manifest Destiny.
I was just checking out the Ya-Ya Bulletin after having read this Slashdot article, and what do I find:
(BTW, the Ya-Yas are youth activists based in NYC who are very cool, and if you're young - 21 & under - there are a lot of cool opportunities to learn computer and multimedia stuff that they list in their bulletin. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to yayabull-feed@youthlink.org.)
THE FALU FOUNDATION is now offering: Free GED classes, Free Computer Classes (MS Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Internet Applications) A+ Computer Repair, Web Page Designing, Quick Books Accounting, MCSE-Intro & Job Readiness skills. You must be btw the ages of 14-22 in order to qualify for a scholarship. 8:30am-2:30pm or 3-6pm. At 220 E 106th St, 3rd fl (btw 2nd &3rd Ave) Info: 212-360-1210, falu@ubms.edu
In response to the original question "Are there any other programs out there like this?" there is Per Scholas[perscholas.org], which trains Bronx residents (other boroughs as well perhaps?) in a computer technician program. From the website:
Since 1995, we've supplied more than 20,000 new computers, along with technical services and teacher training, to over 1,500 schools and non-profit organizations. Low overhead, privileged access to brand name computer components, corporate donors and our dedicated staff allow us to provide your organization with the latest technology at the lowest cost. 80% of our customers place repeat orders. Per Scholas also provides local economic opportunity. We offer a 12-week computer technician training program for residents of our community, the South Bronx.
I haven't ever worked with their graduates, but a colleague of mine recommends them highly. They've also been around a while and trained a pretty large number of technicians.
A clue to why C&W REALLY de-peered PSINet...
on
C&W De-Peers PSInet
·
· Score: 3
At the time of the filing, made in a Manhattan bankruptcy court on May 31, the company had $2.1 billion in assets and $4.3 billion in debt. The company's main creditor is Wilmington Trust Company, which holds around $2.8 billion worth of PSINet bonds. The list also includes vendors like Cisco, Lucent, HP and EMC, which are owed for equipment, and carriers like Broadwing,
Cable & Wireless and Metromedia Fiber Networks, owed for fiber leases and other services.
As a customer of PSINet, I doubt they're going to make it. They have a team of spin doctors for their customers, but mine has yet to return my phone calls. Now THAT is the kind of customer service I like to get from a company that should be kissing its remaining customers' feet.
I don't know if this is legally relevant or not, but UGO continues their ad campaign of sticking up little "Underground Online" stickers on every streetpole, newspaper dispenser, etc., at least as late as last Friday (May 11th). FWIW.
This is a great coincidence; I just started looking for a similar job today. When I graduated college, I was a political organizer, which is about the hardest/most rewarding job in the world. So hard, in fact, I lasted two weeks. Now I'm a computer guy at a real estate firm, but I found some great resources (which I am about to avail myself of once again) for computer-related jobs on the front lines: 1) www.idealist.org. This is the BEST site for finding non-profit PAYING jobs. You can select the field that you are skilled in, including Computers/Internet. I first tried this in April 1999; when I most recently tried it last month, it had grown considerably. This works especially well if you're in an urban area. 2) Most computer user groups offer free courses. If you have any teaching talent, this might be a good way to teach night courses to people that need them. It's partially subsidizing the middle class, and partially subsidizing the megacorporations' training budgets, but you also have the opportunity to give some much-needed job skills to working poor people. Of course, ultimately that's just patching a problem with deeper roots. In addition to www.idealist.org, you can always try the monster.com/dice/etc. approach, but since they charge a fortune to list a job, you're unlikely to find the people that need you most. Also: At the risk of jeapordizing my prospects for taking this next job, my girlfriend found a classified in the Nation for me for a labor-friendly law firm that needed an office manager w/ computer skills....I don't know how often jobs like that pop up in magazine classified ads, but feel free to take a look around if you subscribe to any (or, like her, have to read them for a living). Jon
Slashdot Mirror
No one said that the journalists were trespassing into high-security areas, the report says that they "crossed security lines at some official buildings".
I don't really feel like anyone who hasn't experienced or seen this phenomenon first-hand is going to have a real sense of what a "security line" entails, or how arbitrary they can be. Three weeks ago when I was in Washington DC, I watched about ten journalists get arrested for being on the wrong side of a police line - including Colin Powell's personal photographer. At this event (a political protest that the journalists were covering) the police made well over 500 illegal arrests, and ALL of which that have come to trial so far have been thrown out. I myself was arrested for providing medical care to protestors, while breaking no laws - my charge, and the charge of the reporters, "failure to obey an order to disperse", is one that dozens of arrestees have gotten thrown out on the premise that no such order was ever given - which the Metro PD doesn't deny at trial.
Were journalists intentionally targetted as journalists? Probably not. However, the arbitrary use of arrest as a tool to silence freedom of expression affected their ability to get an article to press - just ask the Washington Post reporter, the UMaryland journalists, or any of the other members of the press who spent the night in jail in the name of a "security line". No wonder the U.S. ranks 17th in this study.
My sentiments exactly. From the perspective of Fortune magazine, we're failing to buy into their incredibly narrow definitions of success. I'm overeducated and underemployed by CHOICE - I make about $24,000 a year, in NYC no less, but by making some wise lifestyle choices, I'm living a much happier life than those who are trying to build their life around the Fortune magazine model. What are my age cohorts supposed to be making at my age, according to Forbes & Co.? $40/hr? I suggest that my fellow Gen-Xers play basketball instead of golf - if this saves us $1000 each per year, after allowing for taxes, that's over 30 more hours we have to spend with our friends money well "spent". Support local artists at $5-10 a show rather than going to see some $45 arena show, and you might actually see some talent.
:)
Unfortunately, the effect of this is that we might start thinking for ourselves, and this is the last thing Fortune wants us to do - we might start realizing that economic indicators like the GDP don't actually measure economic health for normal people, and we might not act in a way that allows them to continue with their unsustainable worldview.
This article sums up my life well - the person featured in the article is a real person, according to my similarly employed housemate, and a friend of hers. That's because we have time to make friends with interesting people, like Onion staff writers, because we're not networking at your boring parties
You can grab the techs around you and start organizing. As a former political organizer, what I've learned is that lots of people know what sucks in their lives and why, but realize they can't take on their problems alone. An organizer is the person who says, "The person down the street from you feels the same way, so does your next door neighbor - let's meet at 7PM next Monday and do something." If you, or anyone else reading this, is in NYC, and you want to get involved in fighting the RIAA EFFECTIVELY, through direct action and media rather than the courts, contact me, we've started a group (about ten of us so far). My e-mail address is jgoldberg at nowldef dot org. If you're not from NYC, go to techcoop.info and find a group near you.
-Jon
I'm amazed that no one seemed to mention that TW/AOL, as a condition of merging, had to OPEN THEIR CABLE MODEM NETWORK! Competing ISPs, in theory, are able to give you cable modem service in TW/AOL-serviced areas. Right now, your three choices are Road Runner, AOL, and Earthlink. Which really means two choices. However, I'm posting this from an Earthlink cable modem account which runs over TWC-installed lines. There's the added bonus that I pay $42 a month for service, all-inclusive, rather than $60, as when I had cable modem service without cable TV.
You DO have a choice...for now.
And that's the point, isn't it? Speaking as someone who spent three years at a school for students with learning disabilities, because I had/have subtle motor problems that makes writing for me especially difficult, I would be the first to welcome the death of "penmanship" as a graded skill.
For years, people assumed I was unwilling, or unable, to do my work. I failed classes that required any amount of writing, and in 4th grade, that's pretty damn hard. After three years of intensive occupational therapy, and self-paced learning, I managed to not only finish high school, but get accepted to, and earn a degree from, a first-tier college. In an average week, I rarely scrawl anything more than a phone number or two, and that's usually in Graffiti, at that.
I agree that computers aren't necessarily an effective educational tool, especially in a classroom setting. However, many of the skills you mentioned simply aren't as relevant to one's education as they were when they incorporated into the elementary school curriculum. It's important for us to rethink even the fundamental elements of the educational process.
And while we're at it, let's start by rethinking the assumption that assumes that the purpose of education (according to the Federal Gov't) is for us to be efficient economic producers. I'd rather use my education for MY own improvement, not the GDP's.
I'm amused by the financier's coincidental(?) apparent relationship to the Sperling family from Robert Heinlein's series of books about the lives of Lazarus Long. The Sperlings were one of the original long-lifed families. Perhaps we've come across their dirty little secret at last?
Actually, post-Brandenburg, you CAN say that it's scheduled for Monday at City Hall, just as long as you aren't saying it Monday morning near City Hall. That's the "imminent lawless action" part - you can't say something that is likely to incite something that's going to happen right now.
Can someone mod this down? I went into Slashdot comments to find a link to the challenge, and found the answer instead. Sigh...a spoiler warning would have been good.
Americorps is about the last place you would want to go if you're looking to do charitable work. If you join Americorps, you're most likely to end up in a intern-level job at a large corporate non-profit making less than the minimum wage ($802 a month, I believe, $826 in urban areas). The program was conceived of to allow middle-class kids with parents who will help support them to do work in communities they don't know the first thing about. It's an exercise in cynicism. And the "decent $$" you get at the end is $4700, and you're severely limited to what you can spend it on. So after a year's work photocopying, since Americorps jobs can't be direct service jobs, you've made $14,612, which hopefully was enough to live on. Maybe in a rural area this works out OK, but in NYC, forget it. If you go to here there's more info. Check out the patronizing photo while you're there. It's so....Manifest Destiny.
I haven't ever worked with their graduates, but a colleague of mine recommends them highly. They've also been around a while and trained a pretty large number of technicians.
As a customer of PSINet, I doubt they're going to make it. They have a team of spin doctors for their customers, but mine has yet to return my phone calls. Now THAT is the kind of customer service I like to get from a company that should be kissing its remaining customers' feet.
I don't know if this is legally relevant or not, but UGO continues their ad campaign of sticking up little "Underground Online" stickers on every streetpole, newspaper dispenser, etc., at least as late as last Friday (May 11th). FWIW.
This is a great coincidence; I just started looking for a similar job today. When I graduated college, I was a political organizer, which is about the hardest/most rewarding job in the world. So hard, in fact, I lasted two weeks. Now I'm a computer guy at a real estate firm, but I found some great resources (which I am about to avail myself of once again) for computer-related jobs on the front lines: 1) www.idealist.org. This is the BEST site for finding non-profit PAYING jobs. You can select the field that you are skilled in, including Computers/Internet. I first tried this in April 1999; when I most recently tried it last month, it had grown considerably. This works especially well if you're in an urban area. 2) Most computer user groups offer free courses. If you have any teaching talent, this might be a good way to teach night courses to people that need them. It's partially subsidizing the middle class, and partially subsidizing the megacorporations' training budgets, but you also have the opportunity to give some much-needed job skills to working poor people. Of course, ultimately that's just patching a problem with deeper roots. In addition to www.idealist.org, you can always try the monster.com/dice/etc. approach, but since they charge a fortune to list a job, you're unlikely to find the people that need you most. Also: At the risk of jeapordizing my prospects for taking this next job, my girlfriend found a classified in the Nation for me for a labor-friendly law firm that needed an office manager w/ computer skills....I don't know how often jobs like that pop up in magazine classified ads, but feel free to take a look around if you subscribe to any (or, like her, have to read them for a living). Jon